Curiosity Captured Two Solar Eclipses on Mars

NASA - Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) patch.

April 4, 2019

When NASA's Curiosity Mars rover landed in 2012, it brought along eclipse glasses. The solar filters on its Mast Camera (Mastcam) allow it to stare directly at the Sun. Over the past few weeks, Curiosity has been putting them to good use by sending back some spectacular imagery of solar eclipses caused by Phobos and Deimos, Mars' two moons.

Animation above: This series of images shows the Martian moon Phobos as it crossed in front of the Sun, as seen by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on Tuesday, March 26, 2019 (Sol 2359). Animation Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

Phobos, which is about 7 miles (11.5 kilometers) across, was imaged on March 26, 2019 (the 2,359th sol, or Martian day, of Curiosity’s mission); Deimos, which is about 1.5 miles (2.3 kilometers) across, was photographed on March 17, 2019 (Sol 2350). Phobos doesn't completely cover the Sun, so it would be considered an annular eclipse. Because Deimos is so small compared to the disk of the Sun, scientists would say it's transiting the Sun.

In addition to capturing each moon crossing in front of the Sun, one of Curiosity's Navigation Cameras (Navcams) observed the shadow of Phobos on March 25, 2019 (Sol 2358). As the moon's shadow passed over the rover during sunset, it momentarily darkened the light.

Animation above: This series of images shows the Martian moon Deimos as it crossed in front of the Sun, as seen by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on Sunday, March 17, 2019 (the 2,350th Martian day, or sol, of the mission). Animation Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

Solar eclipses have been seen many times by Curiosity and other rovers in the past. Besides being cool — who doesn't love an eclipse? — these events also serve a scientific purpose, helping researchers fine-tune their understanding of each moon's orbit around Mars.

Before the Spirit and Opportunity rovers landed in 2004, there was much higher uncertainty in the orbit of each moon, said Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, College Station, a co-investigator with Curiosity's Mastcam. The first time one of the rovers tried to image Deimos eclipsing the Sun, they found the moon was 25 miles (40 kilometers) away from where they expected.

"More observations over time help pin down the details of each orbit," Lemmon said. "Those orbits change all the time in response to the gravitational pull of Mars, Jupiter or even each Martian moon pulling on the other."

Animation above: This series of images shows the shadow of Phobos as it sweeps over NASA's Curiosity Mars rover and darkens the sunlight on Monday, March 25, 2019 (Sol 2358). Animation Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

These events also help make Mars relatable, Lemmon said: "Eclipses, sunrises and sunsets and weather phenomena all make Mars real to people, as a world both like and unlike what they see outside, not just a subject in a book."

To date, there have been eight observations of Deimos eclipsing the Sun from either Spirit, Opportunity or Curiosity; there have been about 40 observations of Phobos. There's still a margin of uncertainty in the orbits of both Martian moons, but that shrinks with every eclipse that's viewed from the Red Planet's surface.

About Curiosity

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover.

Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the Mastcam instrument and two other instruments on Curiosity.

More information about Curiosity is at: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/

More information about Mars is at: https://mars.nasa.gov

Animations (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Tony Greicius/JPL/Andrew Good.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Express Delivery from Russia Brings 3.7 Tons of Station Supplies

ROSCOSMOS - Russian Vehicles patch.

April 4, 2019

Traveling about 254 miles over central China, the unpiloted Russian Progress 72 cargo ship docked at 10:22 a.m. EDT to the Pirs docking compartment on the Russian segment of the complex.

Image above: Russia’s Progress 72 resupply ship approaches the International Space Station’s Pirs docking compartment today. Image Credit: NASA.

In addition to the arrival of Progress today, the crewmembers aboard the space station are scheduled to greet two other cargo resupply missions this month. Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket with Cygnus cargo spacecraft will launch from Pad 0A of Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore on April 17, followed the next week by the launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and cargo Dragon spacecraft from Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Progress MS-11 docking to the ISS

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and cargo Dragon spacecraft also is scheduled to launch from Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Related links:

Pirs docking compartment: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/pirs-docking-compartment

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

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

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Arianespace - Soyuz ST-B launches four O3b satellites

ARIANESPACE - Soyuz Flight VS22 Mission poster.

April 4, 2019

Soyuz ST-B launches first phase of SES’ O3b constellation

Arianespace VS22 mission: a Soyuz ST-B launch vehicle launched four more O3b satellites, the first six OneWeb satellites, from the Soyuz Launch Complex (ELS) in Sinnamary, French Guiana, on 4 April 2019, at 17:03 UTC (14:03 local time). The four O3b satellites (2,800 kg, approx. 700 kg. for each satellite) are the 58th, 59th, 60th and 61th satellites to be launched by Arianespace for the global satellite operator SES.

With a successful Soyuz launch that completed the first phase of SES’ O3b constellation, Arianespace today reaffirmed is ability to support the growing global market for such in-orbit satellite systems.

Soyuz ST-B launches four O3b satellites

Lifting off mid-day from the Spaceport in French Guiana, the workhorse launch vehicle delivered the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th O3b satellites into a circular orbit during a flight lasting 2 hours and 22 minutes until final separation. Total payload lift performance was estimated at 3,198 kg.

After an initial powered phase of Soyuz’ three lower stages, the flight – designated VS22 in Arianespace’s numbering system – included three burns of the Fregat upper stage to place its passengers at their targeted deployment point.

A success for global connectivity

“Today’s launch follows the O3b constellation deployments in 2013, 2014 and 2018, enabling commercial service since September 2014,” said Luce Fabreguettes, Arianespace’s Executive Vice President – Missions, Operations & Purchasing. “We are even prouder that this 5th launch marks the completion of the constellation. Mission accomplished!”

O3b satellites

The O3b fleet of medium-Earth orbit (MEO) satellites – part of SES’s bold vision of connecting people and empowering them with opportunities – is a proven non-geostationary constellation that provides commercial broadband services today, delivering carrier-grade services. Operating at an altitude of approximately 8,000 km., it serves customers in nearly 50 countries.

By increasing the O3b constellation’s size from 16 to 20 satellites, the SES Networks business unit of SES will offer enhanced coverage while providing greater service availability and reliability – responding to increasing demand for bandwidth from governments, as well as the telecom, cloud, maritime and energy markets.

For more information about Arianespace, visit: http://www.arianespace.com/

Images, Video, Text, Credits: Arianespace/SES/SciNews.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Russian Cargo Ship Reaches Space and Races to Station

ROSCOSMOS - Russian Vehicles patch.

April 4, 2019

Image above: Russia’s Progress 72 resupply ship blasts off on time from Kazakhstan to the International Space Station. Image Credit: Roscosmos.

Carrying more than three-and-a-half tons of food, fuel and supplies for the International Space Station crew, the unpiloted Russian Progress 72 cargo spacecraft launched at 7:01 a.m. EDT (4:01 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The resupply ship reached preliminary orbit and deployed its solar arrays and navigational antennas as planned. Following a 2-orbit rendezvous, the Russian cargo craft will dock to the orbiting laboratory at 10:25 a.m. NASA Television coverage of rendezvous and docking will begin at 9:45 a.m.

Progress MS-11 launch

Progress 72 will remain docked at the station for about three months before departing in July for its deorbit in Earth’s atmosphere.

The Progress is the first of three cargo resupply ships delivering supplies to the six crewmembers aboard the space station this month. Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket with its Cygnus cargo spacecraft will launch from Pad 0A of Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore on April 17. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and cargo Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to launch from Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida the following week.

Related links:

Pirs docking compartment: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/pirs-docking-compartment

NASA TV: https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

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

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

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Bennu in Stereo

NASA - OSIRIS-REx Mission logo.

April 3, 2019

This set of stereoscopic images provides a 3D view of the large, 170-foot (52-meter) boulder that juts from asteroid Bennu’s southern hemisphere and the rocky slopes that surround it. The stereo pair was created by stereo image processing scientists Dr. Brian May, who is also the lead guitarist for the rock band Queen, and Claudia Manzoni. In January, May and Manzoni formally joined NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission science team as collaborators to create stereoscopic data products, which will be used by the team while selecting a sample collection site on Bennu.

“I’m proud to have been adopted as a collaborator on the OSIRIS-REx team, along with my colleague Claudia Manzoni,” said May. “Our passion is producing stereoscopic (3-D) images from the astounding data that the OSIRIS-REx mission has been collecting.”

The two images in this stereo pair were taken from slightly different viewpoints, with one of the images meant for the left eye and the other for the right. The two images are then combined by the brain to give the perception of depth. To see the pair in 3D, cross your eyes and relax your vision until there are three images, then focus on the center image. Tilt your head as needed to bring the image into focus. A version of the image suitable for viewing through a stereoscope can be found here: https://www.asteroidmission.org/bennus-boulder-1-stereo-pair-stereoscope-version/

OSIRIS-REx orbiting around Bennu

The cropped and processed images were obtained on December 1 and 2, 2018, by the PolyCam camera during the spacecraft’s final approach toward the asteroid.

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

Image, Animation, Text, Credits: NASA/Karl Hille/Goddard/University of Arizona.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA and MIT's Transforming Wing Could Change How Planes Are Built

NASA logo.

April 3, 2019

Composed of hundreds of small, identical pieces, the shape-shifting wing can automatically morph to the most efficient shape for a given stage of flight.

Image Credits: NASA Ames Research Center/Eli Gershenfeld

NASA is no stranger to transforming aircraft. Consider the ten-engine drone called Greased Lightning, which can shift from VTOL into cruise mode in midflight.

A new project from NASA and MIT explores shape-shifting aircraft further, but from a distinctly different direction. This new wing technology, made up of hundreds of identical pieces, is the foundation for aircraft with flexible wings that transform dynamically in flight to create the optimal shape for their moment-to-moment flight conditions.

Outlined in the journal Smart Materials and Structures, and by MIT News, the approach involves building one wing surface out of a series of injection-molded structures made of polyethylene resin, which are coated with a layer of polymer material. This creates a lightweight and flexible structure that could be morphed and changed in flight. By tweaking the flexibility of specific structures in specific locations, researchers could dial in the wing's response to airflow conditions so it automatically would transform into an ideal aerodynamic shape for the various stages of flight, such as takeoff and cruising.

Image Credits: NASA Ames Research Center/Kenny Cheung

As research engineer Nicholas Cramer at NASA Ames, the paper's lead author, explains in MIT News: "We’re able to gain efficiency by matching the shape to the loads at different angles of attack. We’re able to produce the exact same behavior you would do actively, but we did it passively.”

Researchers tested a hand-constructed model in NASA's Langley Research Center wind tunnel. Eventually, they hope, robots could take on the construction dirty work. And given that the design is modular and the structural subunits are cheap to produce, the approach could also make it much easier to prototype unusual but perhaps more aerodynamically efficient wing designs.

Sensory Networks

MADCAT also uses new sensory systems developed to give real-time feedback on airflow around a wing, for both testing and in-flight purposes.

Each wing is equipped with a series of sensors taking in real-time data from the surroundings. Usually, this kind of network will have each sensor send back raw data, leaving significant lag and processing time.

Image above: An individual voxel used for the MADCAT project. Image Credit: NASA.

Instead, the system designed for MADCAT groups sensors in the skin of the wing around nodes— small data collection centers. Once the data is gathered, it  is processed and passed along to a neighboring node. These work together like a funnel, with each set of sensors taking in data and combining it with its neighbors’, sending information – rather than unprocessed raw data – to the next stage. In other words, the sensors don’t just pass along recorded values – they say what those values actually mean, and can report and interpret airflow patterns in real time, adjusting the structure of the plane’s wing accordingly.

Modeling a Mid-Sized Plane

The final testing phase for MADCAT has successfully completed, significantly increased from its original demonstration as an adaptive drone at the one-meter scale. Recent testing has proven the scalability of this model, using MADCAT to develop a mid-sized plane with a 14-foot wing span with even fewer types of parts than the original model.

NASA Designs Ultra-light Wings That Change Shape During Flight

This combination of adaptive algorithms, lightweight materials and modular design all make the MADCAT wing a unique technology with the potential to revolutionize air vehicle designs. The project has proven modular ultralight wing design can work on a large scale. As this technology continues to develop and make its way into industry, our planes will become not only more cost effective in their design, construction, and repairs, but increasingly versatile, able to adapt to changing weather conditions or scientific objectives on the fly. MADCAT is forging the path to a smarter, greener and more efficient aviation future.

Related article:

What is MADCAT?
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/madcat

Related links:

MIT News: https://phys.org/news/2019-04-mit-nasa-kind-airplane-wing.html

Smart Materials and Structures: https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/0964-1726

NASA Ames Research Center: https://www.nasa.gov/ames

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: Popular Mechanics/Eric Limer.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Moriond 2019 feels the strong force

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo.

3 April, 2019

Pentaquarks, charmed beauty particles and more from the Moriond conference’s second week, which is devoted to studies of the strong nuclear force

Last week, physicists from all over the world gathered in La Thuile, Italy, for the second week of the Rencontres de Moriond conference. This second week of the annual meeting features new and recent findings in all things related to quantum chromodynamics (QCD) – the theory of the strong force that combines quarks into composite particles called hadrons – and to high-energy particle interactions. This year, results from the main experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb) included new pentaquarks, new charmed beauty particles, a more precise measurement of matter–antimatter asymmetry in strange beauty particles, and new results from heavy-ion collisions.

Discovery of new pentaquarks

The LHCb collaboration announced the discovery of new five-quark hadrons, or “pentaquarks”. Quarks normally aggregate into groups of twos and threes, but in recent years the LHCb team has confirmed the existence of exotic tetraquarks and pentaquarks, which are also predicted by QCD. In a 2015 study, the LHCb researchers analysed data from the decay of the three-quark particle Λ_b into a J/ψ particle, a proton and a charged kaon and were able to see two new pentaquarks (dubbed P_c(4450)⁺ and P_c(4380)⁺) in intermediate decay states. After analysing a sample of nine times more Λ_b decays than in the 2015 study, the LHCb team has now discovered a new pentaquark, P_c(4312)⁺ as well as a two-peak pattern in the data that shows that the previously observed  P_c(4450)⁺ structure is in fact two particles.

Image above: A Bs candidate decaying to a J/psi and a phi, where the J/psi decays to two opposite-charge muons (red lines) and the phi decays to two opposite-charge kaons (blue). The event was recorded by ATLAS on 16 August 2017 from proton–proton collisions at 13 TeV. (Image: CERN).

Charmed beauty particles in focus

Notwithstanding significant progress over the past two decades, researchers’ understanding of the QCD processes that make up hadrons is incomplete. One way to try and understand them is through the study of the little-known charmed beauty (B_c) particle family, which consists of hadrons made up of a beauty quark and a charm antiquark (or vice-versa). In 2014, using data from the LHC’s first proton–proton collision run, the ATLAS collaboration reported the observation of a B_c particle called B_c(2S). A very recent analysis by the CMS collaboration of the full LHC sample from the second run, published today in Physical Review Letters and presented at the meeting, has unambiguously observed a two-peak feature in this dataset that corresponds to B_c(2S) and to another B_c particle called B_c*(2S). Meanwhile, the LHCb team, which in 2017 reported no evidence for B_c(2S) in its 2012 data, has now analysed the full 2011–2018 data sample and has also observed the B_c(2S) and B_c*(2S), lending support to the CMS result.

Image above: An event recorded by CMS showing a candidate for the B_c(2S*). The signature for this new particle is the presence of two pions (green lines) and a B_c meson, that decays into a pion (yellow line) plus a J/psi that itself decays to two muons (red). (Image: CERN).

Matter–antimatter asymmetry in strange beauty particles

The meeting’s second week also saw the announcement of a new result concerning the amount of the matter–antimatter asymmetry known as CP violation in the system of strange beauty (B_s) particles, which are made of a bottom quark and a strange quark. B_s mesons have the special feature that they oscillate rapidly into their antiparticle and back, and these oscillations can lead to CP violation when the B_s decays into combinations of particles such as a J/ψ and a ϕ. The amount of CP violation predicted by the Standard Model and observed so far in experiments is too small to account for the observed imbalance between matter and antimatter in the universe, prompting scientists to search for additional, as-yet-unknown sources of CP violation and to measure the extent of the violation from known sources more precisely. Following hot on the heels of two independent measurements of the asymmetry in the B_s system reported by ATLAS and LHCb during the meeting’s first week, a new result that combined the two measurements was reported during the second week. The combined result is the most precise measurement yet of the asymmetry in the B_s system and is consistent with the small value precisely predicted by the Standard Model.

Heavy-ion progress

The ALICE collaboration specialises in collisions between heavy ions such as lead nuclei, which can recreate the quark–gluon plasma (QGP) that is believed to have occurred shortly after the Big Bang. ALICE highlighted its observation that three-quark particles (baryons) containing charm quarks (Λ_c) are produced more often in proton–proton collisions than in electron­–positron collisions. It also showed that its first measurements of such charmed baryons in lead–lead collisions suggest an even higher production rate in these collisions, similar to what has been observed for strange-quark baryons. These observations indicate that the presence of quarks in the colliding beams affects the hadron production rate, shedding new light on the QCD processes that form baryons. The collaboration also presented the first measurement of the triangle-shaped flow of J/psi particles, which contain heavy quarks, in lead–lead collisions. This measurement shows that even heavy quarks are affected by the quarks and gluons in the QGP and retain some memory of the collisions’ initial geometry. Finally, ALICE also presented measurements of particle jets in lead–lead collisions that probe the QGP at different length scales.

For other results, check out the conference page: http://moriond.in2p3.fr/2019/QCD/

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 23 Member States.

Related articles:

LHCb experiment discovers a new pentaquark
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/03/lhcb-experiment-discovers-new-pentaquark.html

LHCb sees a new flavour of matter–antimatter asymmetry
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/03/lhcb-sees-new-flavour-of.html

ATLAS observes light scattering off light
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/03/atlas-observes-light-scattering-off.html

Related links:

Rencontres de Moriond: http://moriond.in2p3.fr/

Physical Review Letters: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.132001

Standard Model: https://home.cern/science/physics/standard-model

Large Hadron Collider (LHC): https://home.cern/science/accelerators/large-hadron-collider

ATLAS experiment: https://home.cern/science/experiments/atlas

LHCb experiment: http://lhcb-public.web.cern.ch/lhcb-public/Welcome.html

Antimatter: https://home.cern/science/physics/antimatter

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

Images (mentioned), Text, Credit: CERN.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch