CASC Long March 5 suffers failure during Shijian-18 launch

CASC - China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation logo.

July 2, 2017

Image above: China’s second Long March 5 rocket lifted off at 11:23 GMT (7:23 a.m. EDT; 7:23 p.m. Beijing time) Sunday. Image Credit: Xinhua.

China launched its second Long March-5 (Chang Zhen-5) rocket on Sunday carrying a super-heavy experimental communications satellite. The launch took place at 11:23 UTC from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre’s LC101 dedicated Launch Complex. However, with the Long March-5, carrying the Shijian-18 satellite, suffered an unspecified failure during what was only its second flight.

China launches Long March-5 Y2 heavy-launcher rocket (Full broadcasting replay)

An update posted on the website of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., the prime contractor for most of China’s space projects, said the launch was unsuccessful and investigators were looking into the cause of the failure.

The new Shijian-18 experimental communications satellite is based on the new DFH-5 satellite platform, developed by CAST (China Academy of Space Technology) of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).

Shijian-18 satellite

The two-stage heavy-lift launcher’s next mission was slated to dispatch the Chang’e 5 mission to collect soil and rock specimens from the lunar surface in November. The probe will launch a return capsule from the moon to bring the samples back to to Earth.

Sunday’s doomed flight was the second time China has launched a Long March 5 rocket. The heavy-lifter’s maiden mission in November 2016 was successful.

For more information about China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), visit: http://english.spacechina.com/n16421/index.html

Images, Video, Text, Credits: CASC/Xinhua/New China TV/Orbiter.ch Aerospace.

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Earth-based Views of Jupiter to Enhance Juno Flyby

GEMINI Observatory logo / SUBARU Observatory logo.

July 1, 2017

Rotating Jupiter With Great Red Spot, January 2017

Animation above: This animation shows Jupiter as revealed by a powerful telescope and a mid-infrared filter sensitive to the giant planet's tropospheric temperatures and cloud thickness. It combines observations made on Jan. 14, 2017, using the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii. Animation Credit: Subaru Telescope.

Telescopes in Hawaii have obtained new images of Jupiter and its Great Red Spot, which will assist the first-ever close-up study of the Great Red Spot, planned for July 10. On that date, NASA's Juno spacecraft will fly directly over the giant planet's most famous feature at an altitude of only about 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers).

Throughout the Juno mission, numerous observations of Jupiter by Earth-based telescopes have been acquired in coordination with the mission, to help Juno investigate the giant planet's atmosphere. On May 18, 2017, the Gemini North telescope and the Subaru Telescope, both on Hawaii's Mauna Kea peak, simultaneously examined Jupiter in very high resolution at different wavelengths. These latest observations supplement others earlier this year in providing information about atmospheric dynamics at different depths at the Great Red Spot and other regions of Jupiter.

Jupiter With Great Red Spot, Near Infrared, May 2017

Image above: This composite, false-color infrared image of Jupiter reveals haze particles over a range of altitudes, as seen in reflected sunlight. It was taken using the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii on May 18, 2017, in collaboration with observations of Jupiter by NASA's Juno mission. Image Credits: NASA/Gemini North telescope.

The Great Red Spot is a swirling storm, centuries old and wider than the diameter of Earth. Juno will use multiple instruments to study this feature when it flies over it about 12 minutes after the spacecraft makes the closest approach to Jupiter of its current orbit at 6:55 p.m. on July 10, PDT (9:55 p.m. on July 10, EDT; 1:55 a.m. on July 11, Universal Time). Juno entered orbit around Jupiter on July 4, 2016.

"Observations with Earth's most powerful telescopes enhance the spacecraft's planned observations by providing three types of additional context," said Juno science team member Glenn Orton of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "We get spatial context from seeing the whole planet. We extend and fill in our temporal context from seeing features over a span of time. And we supplement with wavelengths not available from Juno. The combination of Earth-based and spacecraft observations is a powerful one-two punch in exploring Jupiter."

Jupiter With Great Red Spot, Mid-Infrared, May 2017

Image above: This false-color image of Jupiter was taken on May 18, 2017, with the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii, using a mid-infrared filter centered at a wavelength of 8.8 microns. The Great Red Spot appears at the lower center of the planet as a cold region with a thick cloud layer. Image Credit: Subaru Telescope.

Orton collaborated with researchers at Gemini; Subaru; the University of California, Berkeley; Tohoku University, Japan; and elsewhere in planning the recent observations.

The observers used Gemini North on May 18 to examine Jupiter through special near-infrared filters. The filters exploit specific colors of light that can penetrate the upper atmosphere and clouds of Jupiter, revealing mixtures of methane and hydrogen in the planet's atmosphere. These observations showed a long, fine-structured wave extending off the eastern side of the Great Red Spot.

On the same night, researchers used Subaru's Cooled Mid-Infrared Camera and Spectrometer (COMICS), with filters sensitive to temperatures at different layers of Jupiter's atmosphere. These mid-infrared observations showed the Great Red Spot "had a cold and cloudy interior increasing toward its center, with a periphery that was warmer and clearer," Orton said. "A region to its northwest was unusually turbulent and chaotic, with bands that were cold and cloudy, alternating with bands that were warm and clear."

Related article:

NASA's Juno Spacecraft to Fly Over Jupiter's Great Red Spot July 10
http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2017/06/nasas-juno-spacecraft-to-fly-over.html

For more information about the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan's Subaru Telescope, visit: https://subarutelescope.org/

For more information about the Gemini Observatory, a partnership of the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Chile, visit: https://www.gemini.edu/

JPL manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. The Juno mission is part of the New Frontiers Program managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. JPL is a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California. More information on the Juno mission is available at:

https://www.nasa.gov/juno

http://missionjuno.org

Animation (mentioned), Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Laurie Cantillo/Dwayne Brown/JPL/DC Agle/Guy Webster/Subaru Telescope/Yuko Kakazu/Gemini Observatory/Peter Michaud/Southwest Research Institute/Deb Schmid.

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Veteran Ocean Satellite to Assume Added Role

NASA / CNES - OSTM Jason-2 patch.

July 1, 2017

A venerable U.S./European oceanography satellite mission with NASA participation that has expanded our knowledge of global sea level change, ocean currents and climate phenomena like El Niño and La Niña will take on an additional role next month: improving maps of Earth's sea floor.

The Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 satellite, a partnership among NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the French Space Agency Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), marked its ninth year in orbit on June 20. Designed to fly three to five years, OSTM/Jason-2 has now completed more than 42,000 trips around our planet, contributing to a database of satellite altimetry that dates back to the launch of the U.S./French Topex/Poseidon satellite in 1992.

Image above: Illustration of the U.S./European Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 satellite in orbit. OSTM/Jason-2 will soon take on an additional role to help improve maps of Earth's sea floor. Image Credits: NASA-JPL/Caltech.

Over the past nine years, OSTM/Jason-2 has precisely measured the height of 95 percent of the world's ice-free ocean every 10 days. Since its launch in June 2008, it has measured a 1.6-inch (4-centimeter) increase in global mean sea level, which has been rising at a rate of about 0.12 inches (3 millimeters) a year since satellite altimetry records began in 1993. It has also tracked changes in regional sea level; monitored the speed and direction of ocean surface currents; enabled more accurate weather, ocean and climate forecasts; and observed multiple El Niño and La Niña events. Since October 2016, it has operated in a tandem mission with its successor, Jason-3, launched in January 2016, doubling coverage of the global ocean and improving data resolution for both missions.

But as OSTM/Jason-2's onboard systems age and key components begin to show signs of cumulative space radiation damage, it has become prudent to move the older satellite out of its current shared orbit with Jason-3. On June 20, Jason-2's four mission partner agencies agreed to lower Jason-2's orbit by 17 miles (27 kilometers) in early July, from 830 to 813 miles (1,336 to 1,309 kilometers), placing it in a new orbit with a long repeat period of just more than one year. The move is designed to safeguard the orbit for Jason-3 and its planned successor, Jason-CS/Sentinel-6, planned for launch in 2020.

In its new orbit, OSTM/Jason-2 will also undertake a new science mission. The long-repeat orbit will allow OSTM/Jason-2 to collect data along a series of very closely spaced ground tracks just 5 miles (8 kilometers) apart. The result will be a new, high-resolution estimate of Earth's average sea surface height.

The shape of the sea surface is partly determined by underwater hills and valleys, which pull the water due to the force of gravity. Scientists will use these new OSTM/Jason-2 data to improve maps of the shape and depth of the sea floor, resolving many presently unknown seamounts (underwater mountains) and other geologic features on the ocean bottom. These new maps will permit advances in ocean modeling, tsunami wave forecasting, and naval operations support, and will boost understanding of the dynamics of the solid Earth.

The data will also help prepare for the next generation of global satellite altimetry missions, including the NASA/CNES/Canadian Space Agency/UK Space Agency Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission, planned for launch in 2021; and Sentinel-3B, to be launched by the European Space Agency in early 2018.

"It's still too early for OSTM/Jason-2 to sail off into the sunset," said OSTM/Jason-2 and Jason-3 Project Scientist Josh Willis of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "The ocean covers more than 71 percent of Earth's surface, so improving our knowledge of the shape of the sea floor is like mapping a whole new world. These new data will also help pave the way for satellite altimetry missions that don't need to follow traditional satellite ground tracks."

While OSTM/Jason-2 is leaving its old orbit, data from its new orbit will continue to be used by operational agencies to provide societal and strategic benefits ranging from deriving ocean currents and improving marine, fishery and naval operations; to assisting in forecasting the intensity of tropical hurricanes and cyclones by identifying regions of high thermal energy in the ocean.

For more information, visit: https://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/ and https://www.nasa.gov/ostm

Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/NOAA/John Leslie/JPL/Alan Buis/ESA/Claudia Ritsert-Clark/CNES/Pascale Bresson.

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SpaceX Dragon Departure Slips to Monday

ISS - Expedition 52 Mission patch.

June 30, 2017

Due to a forecast of unacceptable sea states in the Pacific Ocean in the prime opportunity splashdown zone, SpaceX and NASA have elected to delay the return of the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft to Monday, July 3.The splashdown zone for Monday has an acceptable weather forecast and is closer to port in Long Beach, California. Splashdown is expected around 260 miles southwest of the California coast.

Image above: The SpaceX Dragon was pictured May 31, 2012, moments before its release from the grip of the Canadarm2 and its departure from the space station. Image Credit: NASA.

NASA TV coverage of the departure of Dragon Monday, July 3 will begin at 2:00 a.m. EDT for a release at 2:28 a.m.

Related article:

NASA Science to Return to Earth aboard SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft
http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2017/06/nasa-science-to-return-to-earth-aboard.html

Related links:

Commercial Resupply: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/launch/index.html

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

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

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

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

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

The LHC racks up records

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo.

June 30, 2017

Image above: View of the LHC. It took only five weeks for the operators of the LHC to reach 2256 particle bunches circulating in each direction of the accelerator. (Image : Maximilien Brice/CERN).

An unprecedented number of particles has been reached in record time. Just five weeks after physics resumed, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is already running at full throttle. On Wednesday 28 June 2017 the LHC established yet another record-breaking high, with 2556 proton bunches circulating in each direction of the accelerator. The beams in the LHC are made up of bunches of protons, spaced seven metres (25 nanoseconds) apart, with each one containing more than 100 billion protons. 2556 is the maximum possible number of bunches that can be reached with the beam preparation method currently used.

The particle bunches that are delivered to the LHC are prepared and accelerated by a chain of four accelerators. Since last year, a new method to group and split the bunches enables the particles to be squeezed even closer together. With an equal number of protons, the beam diameter was reduced by 40 per cent. Denser bunches means a higher probability of collisions at the centre of the experiments.

This success has led to a new luminosity record for the LHC of 1.58x10³⁴ cm^-2s^-1. This figure may not mean much to most of us, but it’s crucial for the accelerator’s experts. It measures the number of potential collisions per second and per unit of area . This new peak luminosity surpasses initial expectations defined by the original designs for the LHC, which  hoped it could reach a maximum of 1x10³⁴cm^-2s^-1.

Graphic above: This plot shows the values of the luminosity reached during the last few weeks by the LHC, with the record of 1.58x10³⁴ cm^-2s^-1 achieved on Wednesday 28 June. Graphic Credit: CERN.

A higher luminosity means more collisions for the experiments collecting data: in just a few weeks ATLAS and CMS stored more than 6 inverse femtobarns, over an eighth of the total anticipated for the whole year.

Nevertheless, the operators cannot sit on their hands. Many parameters can be tuned to further improve the luminosity.

Next week, the LHC and its experiments will take a short break for the first of the two technical stops planned for the year. This will be an opportunity to carry out maintenance.

Read a more detailed article on LHC recent performances: http://home.cern/cern-people/updates/2017/06/lhc-report-full-house-lhc

Note:

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

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

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

Related links:

Large Hadron Collider (LHC): http://home.cern/topics/large-hadron-collider

luminosity: http://home.cern/tags/luminosity

ATLAS: http://home.cern/about/experiments/atlas

CMS: http://home.cern/about/experiments/cms

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

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

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA’S First Asteroid Deflection Mission Enters Next Design Phase

NASA - Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) logo.

June 30, 2017

The first-ever mission to demonstrate an asteroid deflection technique for planetary defense -- the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) -- is moving from concept development to preliminary design phase, following NASA’s approval on June 23.

Image above: Artist concept of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft. DART, which is moving to preliminary design phase, would be NASA’s first mission to demonstrate an asteroid deflection technique for planetary defense. Image Credits: NASA/JHUAPL.

“DART would be NASA’s first mission to demonstrate what’s known as the kinetic impactor technique -- striking the asteroid to shift its orbit -- to defend against a potential future asteroid impact,” said Lindley Johnson, planetary defense officer at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This approval step advances the project toward an historic test with a non-threatening small asteroid.”

While current law directs the development of the DART mission, DART is not identified as a specific budget item in the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget.

The target for DART is an asteroid that will have a distant approach to Earth in October 2022, and then again in 2024. The asteroid is called Didymos -- Greek for “twin” -- because it’s an asteroid binary system that consists of two bodies: Didymos A, about one-half mile (780 meters) in size, and a smaller asteroid orbiting it called Didymos B, about 530 feet (160 meters) in size. DART would impact only the smaller of the two bodies, Didymos B.

The Didymos system has been closely studied since 2003. The primary body is a rocky S-type object, with composition similar to that of many asteroids. The composition of its small companion, Didymos B, is unknown, but the size is typical of asteroids that could potentially create regional effects should they impact Earth.

“A binary asteroid is the perfect natural laboratory for this test,” said Tom Statler, program scientist for DART at NASA Headquarters. “The fact that Didymos B is in orbit around Didymos A makes it easier to see the results of the impact, and ensures that the experiment doesn’t change the orbit of the pair around the sun.”

After launch, DART would fly to Didymos, and use an on-board autonomous targeting system to aim itself at Didymos B. Then the refrigerator-sized spacecraft would strike the smaller body at a speed about nine times faster than a bullet, approximately 3.7 miles per second (6 kilometers per second). Earth-based observatories would be able to see the impact and the resulting change in the orbit of Didymos B around Didymos A, allowing scientists to better determine the capabilities of kinetic impact as an asteroid mitigation strategy. The kinetic impact technique works by changing the speed of a threatening asteroid by a small fraction of its total velocity, but by doing it well before the predicted impact so that this small nudge will add up over time to a big shift of the asteroid’s path away from Earth.

“DART is a critical step in demonstrating we can protect our planet from a future asteroid impact,” said Andy Cheng of The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, the DART investigation co-lead. “Since we don’t know that much about their internal structure or composition, we need to perform this experiment on a real asteroid. With DART, we can show how to protect Earth from an asteroid strike with a kinetic impactor by knocking the hazardous object into a different flight path that would not threaten the planet.”

Dart Moon Collision

Video above: This animation shows how NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) would target and strike the smaller (left) element of the binary asteroid Didymos to demonstrate how a kinetic impact could potentially redirect an asteroid as part of the agency’s planetary defense program. Video Credits: NASA/JHUAPL.

Small asteroids hit Earth almost daily, breaking up harmlessly in the upper atmosphere. Objects large enough to do damage at the surface are much rarer. Objects larger than 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) in diameter -- large enough to cause global effects -- have been the focus of NASA’s ground-based search for potentially hazardous objects with orbits that bring them near the Earth, and about 93 percent of these sized objects have already been found. DART would test technologies to deflect objects in the intermediate size range—large enough to do regional damage, yet small enough that there are many more that have not been observed and could someday hit Earth. NASA-funded telescopes and other assets continue to search for these objects, track their orbits, and determine if they are a threat.

To assess and formulate capabilities to address these potential threats, NASA established its Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) in 2016, which is responsible for finding, tracking and characterizing potentially hazardous asteroids and comets coming near Earth, issuing warnings about possible impacts, and assisting plans and coordination of U.S. government response to an actual impact threat.

DART is being designed and would be built and managed by The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. The project would be overseen by the Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. DART also is supported by teams from the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland; Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas; and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

Related link:

Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO): https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/overview

To learn more about NASA planetary defense and DART visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense

http://dart.jhuapl.edu

Image (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Tricia Talbert.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA Simulates Asteroid Impacts to Help Identify Possible Life-Threatening Events

NASA logo.

June 30, 2017

Supercomputer Simulation of Chelyabinsk-like Asteroid Entering Earth’s Atmosphere

Video above: The animation above from an ALE3D simulation shows a Chelyabinsk-like asteroid breaking up during atmospheric entry at about 45,000 miles per hour, with a high-pressure shock wave that forms around the asteroid causing it to fracture and flatten like a pancake. Video Credits: NASA Ames/Darrel Robertson.

When an asteroid struck the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in 2013, the blast from the asteroid’s shock wave broke windows and damaged buildings as far away as 58 miles (93 kilometers), injuring more than 1,200 people.

In support of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, researchers are creating 3-D models and using one of NASA’s most powerful supercomputers to produce simulations of hypothetical asteroid impact scenarios. Their results help first responders and other agencies to identify and make better informed decisions for how best to defend against life-threatening asteroid events.

High-fidelity simulations of potential asteroids covering a wide range of sizes were run on the Pleiades supercomputer using NASA’s Cart3D and Lawrence Livermore National Lab’s ALE3D modeling software by experts on the Asteroid Threat Assessment Project at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility at Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.

Chelyabinsk asteroid breaking trace during atmospheric entry. Image Credit: ESA

The NASA team was able to run large-scale simulations of the Chelyabinsk asteroid event on Pleiades to produce many impact scenarios quickly, because Cart3D is dozens of times faster than typical 3-D numerical modeling used for aerodynamic analysis. The detailed simulations allowed the team to model the fluid flow that occurs when asteroids melt and vaporize as they break up in the atmosphere.

NASA’s asteroid research is shared with scientists at universities, national labs, and government agencies who develop assessment and response plans to look at damage to infrastructure, warning times, evacuations, and other options for protecting lives and property.

For more information on NASA’s Asteroid Threat Assessment Project work, visit:

http://www.nas.nasa.gov/publications/articles/feature_asteroid_simulations.html

NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office: https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense

High-Tech Computing: https://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/high-tech-computing/index.html

Ames Research Center: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/home/index.html

Image (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Kimberly Williams/Ames Research Center/Kimberly Minafra.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch