Orbiter.ch Space News

jeudi 12 décembre 2019

NASA’s NICER Delivers Best-ever Pulsar Measurements, 1st Surface Map

ISS - NICER - SEXTANT Mission patch.

Dec. 12, 2019

Astrophysicists are redrawing the textbook image of pulsars, the dense, whirling remains of exploded stars, thanks to NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), an X-ray telescope aboard the International Space Station. Using NICER data, scientists have obtained the first precise and dependable measurements of both a pulsar’s size and its mass, as well as the first-ever map of hot spots on its surface.

Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR or NICER. Image Credit: NASA

The pulsar in question, J0030+0451 (J0030 for short), lies in an isolated region of space 1,100 light-years away in the constellation Pisces. While measuring the pulsar's heft and proportions, NICER revealed that the shapes and locations of million-degree “hot spots” on the pulsar’s surface are much stranger than generally thought.

“From its perch on the space station, NICER is revolutionizing our understanding of pulsars,” said Paul Hertz, astrophysics division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Pulsars were discovered more than 50 years ago as beacons of stars that have collapsed into dense cores, behaving unlike anything we see on Earth. With NICER we can probe the nature of these dense remnants in ways that seemed impossible until now.”

A series of papers analyzing NICER’s observations of J0030 appears in a focus issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters and is now available online.

NASA’s NICER Reveals 1st-ever Pulsar Surface Map

Video above: Watch how NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) has expanded our understanding of pulsars, the dense, spinning corpses of exploded stars. Pulsar J0030+0451, located 1,100 light-years away in the constellation Pisces, now has the most precise and reliable size measurements of any pulsar to date. The shapes and locations of its hot spots challenge textbook depictions of these incredible objects.
Video Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

When a massive star dies, it runs out of fuel, collapses under its own weight and explodes as a supernova. These stellar deaths can leave behind neutron stars, which pack more mass than our Sun into a sphere roughly as wide as the island of Manhattan is long. Pulsars, which are one class of neutron star, spin up to hundreds of times each second and sweep beams of energy toward us with every rotation. J0030 revolves 205 times per second.

For decades, scientists have been trying to figure out exactly how pulsars work. In the simplest model, a pulsar has a powerful magnetic field shaped much like a household bar magnet. The field is so strong it rips particles from the pulsar’s surface and accelerates them. Some particles follow the magnetic field and strike the opposite side, heating the surface and creating hot spots at the magnetic poles. The whole pulsar glows faintly in X-rays, but the hot spots are brighter. As the object spins, these spots sweep in and out of view like the beams of a lighthouse, producing extremely regular variations in the object’s X-ray brightness. But the new NICER studies of J0030 show pulsars aren’t so simple.

Using NICER observations from July 2017 to December 2018, two groups of scientists mapped J0030’s hot spots using independent methods and converged on similar results for its mass and size. A team led by Thomas Riley, a doctoral student in computational astrophysics, and his supervisor Anna Watts, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Amsterdam, determined the pulsar is around 1.3 times the Sun’s mass and 15.8 miles (25.4 kilometers) across. Cole Miller, an astronomy professor at the University of Maryland (UMD) who led the second team, found J0030 is about 1.4 times the Sun’s mass and slightly larger, about 16.2 miles (26 kilometers) wide.

“When we first started working on J0030, our understanding of how to simulate pulsars was incomplete, and it still is,” Riley said. “But thanks to NICER’s detailed data, open-source tools, high-performance computers and great teamwork, we now have a framework for developing more realistic models of these objects.”

Animation above: Simulation of a possible quadrupole magnetic field configuration for a pulsar with hot spots in only the southern hemisphere. Animation Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

A pulsar is so dense its gravity warps nearby space-time — the “fabric” of the universe as described by Einstein’s general theory of relativity — in much the same way as a bowling ball on a trampoline stretches the surface. Space-time is so distorted that light from the side of the pulsar facing away from us is “bent” and redirected into our view. This makes the star look bigger than it is. The effect also means the hot spots may never completely disappear as they rotate to the far side of the star. NICER measures the arrival of each X-ray from a pulsar to better than a hundred nanoseconds, a precision about 20 times greater than previously available, so scientists can take advantage of this effect for the first time.

“NICER’s unparalleled X-ray measurements allowed us to make the most precise and reliable calculations of a pulsar’s size to date, with an uncertainty of less than 10%,” Miller said. “The whole NICER team has made an important contribution to fundamental physics that is impossible to probe in terrestrial laboratories.”

Our view from Earth looks onto J0030’s northern hemisphere. When the teams mapped the shapes and locations of J0030’s spots, they expected to find one there based on the textbook image of pulsars, but didn’t. Instead, the researchers identified up to three hot “spots,” all in the southern hemisphere.

Riley and his colleagues ran rounds of simulations using overlapping circles of different sizes and temperatures to recreate the X-ray signals. Performing their analysis on the Dutch national supercomputer Cartesius took less than a month — but would have required around 10 years on a modern desktop computer. Their solution identifies two hot spots, one small and circular and the other long and crescent-shaped.

Animation above: NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer is an X-ray payload aboard the International Space Station. Animation Credit: NASA.

Miller’s group performed similar simulations, but with ovals of different sizes and temperatures, on UMD’s Deepthought2 supercomputer. They found two possible and equally likely spot configurations. One has two ovals that closely match the pattern found by Riley’s team. The second solution adds a third, cooler spot slightly askew of the pulsar’s south rotational pole.

Previous theoretical predictions suggested that hot spot locations and shapes could vary, but the J0030 studies are the first to map these surface features. Scientists are still trying to determine why J0030’s spots are arranged and shaped as they are, but for now it’s clear that pulsar magnetic fields are more complicated than the traditional two-pole model.

NICER’s main science goal is to precisely determine the masses and sizes of several pulsars. With this information scientists will finally be able to decipher the state of matter in the cores of neutron stars, matter crushed by tremendous pressures and densities that cannot be replicated on Earth.

“It’s remarkable, and also very reassuring, that the two teams achieved such similar sizes, masses and hot spot patterns for J0030 using different modeling approaches,” said Zaven Arzoumanian, NICER science lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It tells us NICER is on the right path to help us answer an enduring question in astrophysics: What form does matter take in the ultra-dense cores of neutron stars?”

NICER is an Astrophysics Mission of Opportunity within NASA's Explorers program, which provides frequent flight opportunities for world-class scientific investigations from space utilizing innovative, streamlined and efficient management approaches within the heliophysics and astrophysics science areas. NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate supports the SEXTANT component of the mission, demonstrating pulsar-based spacecraft navigation.

Related article:

NASA's NICER Catches Record-setting X-ray Burst
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/11/nasas-nicer-catches-record-setting-x.html

Related links:

Astrophysical Journal Letters: https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/2041-8205/page/Focus_on_NICER_Constraints_on_the_Dense_Matter_Equation_of_State

University of Amsterdam: https://www.uva.nl/en

University of Maryland (UMD): https://umd.edu/

NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR): http://www.nasa.gov/nicer

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

Image (mentioned), Animations (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Rob Garner/Goddard Space Flight Center, by Jeanette Kazmierczak.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Mars Express tracks the phases of Phobos

ESA - Mars Express Mission patch.

Dec. 12, 2019

ESA’s Mars Express has captured detailed views of the small, scarred and irregularly shaped moon Phobos from different angles during a unique flyby.

Phobos

Mars has two moons: Phobos and the smaller and more distant Deimos, named after the Greek mythological personifications of fear (Phobos – hence ‘phobia’) and terror (Deimos).

Mars Express has explored this duo since it began observing the Red Planet in 2004: it has viewed Phobos with the beautiful rings of Saturn in the background, skimmed past the moon at a distance of just 45 km, used its High Resolution Stereo Camera to take incredibly detailed 360-degree images of Phobos and its intriguingly marked surface, and approached Deimos to produce an array of images and pin down the moon's location and motions.

A new image sequence from Mars Express now captures Phobos’ motions and surface in detail. The movie comprises 41 images taken on 17 November 2019, when Phobos passed Mars Express at a distance of 2400 km. Mars Express is currently the only spacecraft capable of close encounters with Phobos.

Mars Express views Phobos phases

This opportunity allowed the spacecraft to view myriad features across the moon’s surface. A number of impact craters can be seen, created as the 26 km-long Phobos was hit by small bodies and rocky debris during its travels through space. The largest of these is Stickney crater, which can be seen towards the centre of the frame and measures 10 km across.

Also visible are a number of linear marks and furrows that resemble long, deep grooves or scratches. The origin of these features is uncertain: they may have been carved out by debris rolling across the moon’s surface, or created as the moon was pulled in different directions by tidal forces driven by its parent planet.

The image sequence shows Phobos at a number of angles – the moon can be seen rotating, and slowly lightens up before it begins to darken again. The slight up-and-down motion of the moon is caused by the slight oscillation of Mars Express, as the spacecraft has rotated from its normal position (pointing towards Mars) to this new one (pointing towards Phobos) in order to acquire these images.

Phobos phase angles explained

These data nicely illustrate the concept of ‘phase angle’: the angle between a light source (in this case, the Sun) and the observer (Mars Express), as viewed from the target object itself (Phobos). The initial phase angle is 17 degrees, drops to almost 0 degrees mid-way through (when Phobos is at its brightest), and then rises to 15 degrees by the end of the animation.

To gain a mental image of this trajectory, one can imagine Mars Express observing Phobos from one side, slowly moving across to draw level with it, and then moving away to the other side, drawing an arc in the sky between Phobos and the Sun.

Phase angle changes

Images acquired across a range of phase angles, as shown here, are incredibly useful for scientists. Different shadows are cast as the Sun’s position changes relative to the target object: this illuminates and highlights the surface features and enables calculations of feature height, depth and relief, and reveals much about the roughness, porosity and reflectivity of the surface material itself.

A phase angle of zero degrees occurs when the Sun is directly behind the observer. In this alignment, all of the light illuminating Phobos hits the surface vertically and is thus largely reflected back into space, causing the target object to brighten up noticeably, as seen in the animation, and shadows to disappear. The lowest phase angle in this animation is not precisely zero, but 0.92 degrees.

This arrangement – of the Sun, Mars Express and Phobos where the latter is observed at a phase angle of near zero – is very rare, and happens only three times a year at most. Other chances to achieve a phase angle of under one will not occur until April and September 2020 (in the latter case, Mars Express may achieve a phase angle of precisely zero).

Mars Express Phobos flyby

As such, Mars Express takes every opportunity to view this small and intriguing moon from this angle, to shed light on its properties, behaviour, possible origin, orbital characteristics and location in space – and to probe its potential as a mission destination.

Phobos may be an unfamiliar world, but the phenomenon shown in the movie is familiar to anyone who has seen a full Moon. To create a full Moon, the Sun, Earth and Moon align in a roughly straight line (although, due to orbital inclinations, an exact line-up is rare, and results in a lunar eclipse). Here the phase angle – the angle between the light source (the Sun) and observer on the surface of the Earth, as viewed from the Moon – is zero, just as in the movie of Phobos. Today, 12 December, marks the last full Moon of 2019. So look up, and think of Mars’ tiny moon Phobos!

Related links:

Mars Express: http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Mars_Express

Science & Exploration: http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration

Images, Videos, Text, Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO/DLR/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Secret life above thunderstorms uncovered

ISS - International Space Station logo.

Dec. 12, 2019

Spooky lightning

The space-borne storm-hunter on Europe’s Columbus laboratory is continuously monitoring thunderstorms as it flies 400 km overhead on the International Space Station.

Pilots reported seeing shows of light in the upper atmosphere and scientists coined names such as red sprites, blue jets and elves. Now the Atmosphere–Space Interactions Monitor, or ASIM, is revealing details on the elusive events that occur when lightning strikes Earth and extends upward into space.

Thunderstorm seen from Space Station

“ASIM is working beyond expectations and the results coming in are fascinating,” says Torsten Neubert, lead scientist for ASIM, “we have so many new insights into lightning from the cloud tops which appear more common than we thought and which may influence Earth’s climate.”

World-view of terrestrial gamma rays

Terrestrial gamma-ray flashes are high-energy discharges of photons that propagate out into space. Scientists knew they existed because they were detected by astronomy spacecraft, but the ‘MXGS’ instrument on ASIM is looking down at Earth from the International Space Station and scans the globe to pinpoint where the gamma-rays are coming from, the first high-energy instrument to generate images of our planet in gamma rays.

Terrestrial gamma-ray flash

“Terrestrial gamma-ray flashes are like having a huge particle accelerator just above our head” says Nikolai Østgaard from the University of Bergen in Norway, “we need to know more about the phenomenon.”

The ASIM team published the first image of the Earth in gamma rays ever made earlier this year and during the first ten months in operation 217 flashes have been recorded, ASIM has pinpointed their location of origin for nearly 30 flashes.

More eyes

As ASIM has a better detection capability for terrestrial gamma-ray flashes it is revealing more details than ever before, as well as showing where they originate. Scientists can then pool data from other spacecraft and ground-based weather stations to complete the overview.

ASIM in action

One storm near Melbourne, Australia, revealed a wealth of information as data from ground-based stations on wind speeds, temperatures, gamma-ray intensity as well as optical pictures can be compared.

Flashing elves

The space-based storm hunter has another suite of instruments that scan our world looking for optical events in the upper atmosphere such as elves, the result of electromagnetic waves from lightning strikes that expand upward and hit the ionosphere and make rings of light. The ‘MMIA’ instruments continuously take 720 pictures of our planet a minute and store the interesting blips of activity above thunderstorms for analysis.

Eyes on the storm

ASIM detected 15 elves that occurred over thunderstorms that also created terrestrial gamma-ray flashes. Could the phenomena be related?

Looking and seeing – blink and you will miss it

As ASIM monitors gamma rays and has optical detectors with extremely high frequency – 100 000 times per second – the two suites of instruments are revealing surprising information about the sequence of events.

“Almost 100 thunderstorms have been analysed where terrestrial gamma-rays occurred” says Torsten, “and it seems that gamma-ray explosions are created before lightning strikes.”

Storm hunter infographics

“We vaguely knew these things were happening just as you know a light has been switched on even when you have your eyes closed,” says Victor Reglero of the University of Valencia, “with ASIM we are opening our eyes and can actually see where and how the events are occurring.”

“For years not so much progress was being made in understanding terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, little new information was being gathered,” adds Nikolai, “ASIM is delivering fresh data and that is why the scientific community is so excited – this is a real game changer”

The data ASIM is generating are now available for download and can be consulted at the ASIM Science Data Center website, and a paper was published yesterday in Science magazine.

Related links:

ASIM Science Data Center website: https://asdc.space.dtu.dk/

Science magazine: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/12/09/science.aax3872

Human and Robotic Exploration: http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration

Science & Exploration: http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration

International Space Station (ISS): http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/International_Space_Station

Images, Animation, Text, Credits: ESA/NASA/University of Valencia/DTU Space.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

The Return to Venus and What It Means for Earth

NASA logo.

December 12, 2019

Image above: Venus hides a wealth of information that could help us better understand Earth and exoplanets. NASA's JPL is designing mission concepts to survive the planet's extreme temperatures and atmospheric pressure. This image is a composite of data from NASA's Magellan spacecraft and Pioneer Venus Orbiter. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Sue Smrekar really wants to go back to Venus. In her office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the planetary scientist displays a 30-year-old image of Venus' surface taken by the Magellan spacecraft, a reminder of how much time has passed since an American mission orbited the planet. The image reveals a hellish landscape: a young surface with more volcanoes than any other body in the solar system, gigantic rifts, towering mountain belts and temperatures hot enough to melt lead.

Now superheated by greenhouse gases, Venus' climate was once more similar to Earth's, with a shallow ocean's worth of water. It may even have subduction zones like Earth, areas where the planet's crust sinks back into rock closer to the core of the planet.

"Venus is like the control case for Earth," said Smrekar. "We believe they started out with the same composition, the same water and carbon dioxide. And they've gone down two completely different paths. So why? What are the key forces responsible for the differences?"

The Mysterious Planet

Video above: By studying this mysterious planet, scientists could learn a great deal more about exoplanets, as well as the past, present, and possible future of our own. This video unveils this world and calls on current and future scientists to explore its many features. Video Credit: Goddard Space Flight Center.

Smrekar works with the Venus Exploration Analysis Group (VEXAG), a coalition of scientists and engineers investigating ways to revisit the planet that Magellan mapped so many decades ago. Though their approaches vary, the group agrees that Venus could tell us something vitally important about our planet: what happened to the superheated climate of our planetary twin, and what does it mean for life on Earth?

Orbiters

Venus isn't the closest planet to the Sun, but it is the hottest in our solar system. Between the intense heat (900 degrees Fahrenheit heat, or 480 degrees Celsius), the corrosive sulfuric clouds and a crushing atmosphere that is 90 times denser than Earth's, landing a spacecraft there is incredibly challenging. Of the nine Soviet probes that achieved the feat, none lasted longer than 127 minutes.

From the relative safety of space, an orbiter could use radar and near-infrared spectroscopy to peer beneath the cloud layers, measure landscape changes over time, and determine whether or not the ground moves. It could look for indicators of past water as well as volcanic activity and other forces that may have shaped the planet.

Smrekar, who is working on an orbiter proposal called VERITAS, doesn't think that Venus has plate tectonics the way Earth does. But she sees possible hints of subduction - what happens when two plates converge and one slides beneath the other. More data would help.

"We know very little about the composition of the surface of Venus," she said. "We think that there are continents, like on Earth, which could have formed via past subduction. But we don't have the information to really say that."

The answers wouldn't only deepen our understanding of why Venus and Earth are now so different; they could narrow down the conditions scientists would need in order to find an Earth-like planet elsewhere.

Hot Air Balloons

Orbiters aren't the only means of studying Venus from above. JPL engineers Attila Komjathy and Siddharth Krishnamoorthy imagine an armada of hot air balloons that ride the gale-force winds in the upper levels of the Venusian atmosphere, where the temperatures are close to Earth's.

"There is no commissioned mission for a balloon at Venus yet, but balloons are a great way to explore Venus because the atmosphere is so thick and the surface is so harsh," said Krishnamoorthy. "The balloon is like the sweet spot, where you're close enough to get a lot of important stuff out but you're also in a much more benign environment where your sensors can actually last long enough to give you something meaningful."

Image above: A team of JPL engineers tests whether a large balloon can measure earthquakes from the air. The team proposes to measure "venusqakes" from the temperate upper atmosphere of Venus, using an armada of balloons. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

The team would equip the balloons with seismometers sensitive enough to detect quakes on the planet below. On Earth, when the ground shakes, that motion ripples into the atmosphere as waves of infrasound (the opposite of ultrasound). Krishnamoorthy and Komjathy have demonstrated the technique is feasible using silver hot-air balloons, which measured weak signals above areas on Earth with tremors. And that's not even with the benefit of Venus's dense atmosphere, where the experiment would likely return even stronger results.

"If the ground moves a little bit, it shakes the air a lot more on Venus than it does on Earth," Krishnamoorthy explained.

To get that seismic data, though, a balloon mission would need to contend with Venus' hurricane-force winds. The ideal balloon, as determined by Venus Exploration Analysis Group, could control its movements in at least one direction. Krishnamoorthy and Komjathy's team hasn't gotten that far, but they have proposed a middle ground: having the balloons essentially ride the wind around the planet at a steady speed, sending their results back to an orbiter. It's a start.

Landing Probes

Among the many challenges facing a Venus lander are those Sun-blocking clouds: Without sunlight, solar-power would be severely limited. But the planet is too hot for other power sources to survive. "Temperature-wise, it's like being in your kitchen oven set to self-cleaning mode," said JPL engineer Jeff Hall, who has worked on balloon and lander prototypes for Venus. "There really is nowhere else like that surface environment in the solar system."

By default, a landing mission's lifespan will be cut short by the spacecraft's electronics starting to fail after a few hours. Hall says the amount of power required to run a refrigerator capable of protecting a spacecraft would require more batteries than a lander could carry.

"There is no hope of refrigerating a lander to keep it cool," he added. "All you can do is slow down the rate at which is destroys itself."

Image above: Sue Smrekar, seen here at the 2018 media briefing before the landing of NASA's Mars InSight, is a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She believes exploring Venus will reveal important details about how rocky planets form and whether other planets are capable of supporting life.Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

NASA is interested in developing "hot technology" that can survive days, or even weeks, in extreme environments. Although Hall's Venus lander concept didn't make it to the next stage of the approval process, it did lead to his current Venus-related work: a heat-resistant drilling and sampling system that could take Venusian soil samples for analysis. Hall works with Honeybee Robotics to develop the next-generation electric motors that power drills in extreme conditions, while JPL engineer Joe Melko designs the pneumatic sampling system.

Together, they work with the prototypes in JPL's steel-walled Large Venus Test Chamber, which mimics the conditions of the planet right down to an atmosphere that's a suffocating 100% carbon dioxide. With each successful test, the teams bring humanity one step closer to pushing the boundaries of exploration on this most inhospitable planet.

For more information about Venus, visit: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/venus

Images (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/JPL/Arielle Samuelson.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

mercredi 11 décembre 2019

Blue Origin - New Shepard Mission NS-12

Blue Origin logo.

Dec. 11, 2019

New Shepard Mission NS-12 lift off

The New Shepard reusable launch system was launched and landed at Blue Origin’s West Texas Launch Site, on 11 December 2019, at 17:53 UTC (11:53 CST). This was the 6th mission, launch and landing, for this New Shepard launch vehicle. Audio commentary by Ariane Cornell, Director of Astronaut & Orbital Sales, Blue Origin.

Blue Origin NS-12: New Shepard launch & landing, December 2019

New Shepard Mission NS-12 Updates: December 11

This mission was another step towards verifying New Shepard for human spaceflight as we continue to mature the safety and reliability of the vehicle.

This was the 6th flight for this particular New Shepard vehicle. Blue Origin has so far reused two boosters five times each consecutively, so today marks a record with this booster completing its 6th flight to space and back.

This particular rocket has been an operational payload vehicle for several flights, meaning there are no more updates to the system.

New Shepard Mission NS-12 landing (rocket)

This was also the 9th commercial payload mission for New Shepard, and we are proud to be have flown our 100th customer on board.

NS-12 Update: December 8

As we move towards verifying New Shepard for human spaceflight we are continuing to mature the safety and reliability of the vehicle.

It’s the 6th flight for this particular New Shepard vehicle, marking the first time a Blue Origin booster has made this many consecutive flights (the previous booster flew five times consecutively) - all with minimal refurbishment between flights. This particular rocket has been an operational payload vehicle for several flights, meaning there are no more updates to the system.

This will also be the 9th commercial payload mission for New Shepard, and we are proud to be flying our 100th customer on board.

Also on the vehicle are thousands of postcards from students around the world for our nonprofit Club for the Future. The Club's mission is to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM and help visualize the future of life in space.

New Shepard Mission NS-12 Notable Payloads Manifested:

OK Go

Earlier this year we partnered with rock band OK Go on a contest called Art in Space, giving high school and middle school students a chance to send art experiments into space on our New Shepard vehicle. We are sending the two winning art projects on NS-12.

Columbia University

One of our educational payloads from Columbia University, designed and built by undergraduate students and advised by Dr. Michael Massimino (an astronaut), will study the acute impacts of microgravity environments on cell biology. This is crucial for humans living and working in space.

OSCAR

OSCAR, which was led by principal investigator Dr. Annie Meier, is a recycling technology payload from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. It is designed to create a mixture of gasses that could be used for propulsion or life support from common waste on a deep space human exploration mission. This is Blue’s first full-stack payload, meaning there will be more room to do complex studies in flight.

Related links:

Club for the Future: https://www.clubforfuture.org/

Partnered with rock band OK Go: https://twitter.com/blueorigin/status/1103039928005349376?s=20

Art in Space: https://okgosandbox.org/art-in-space/

Blue Origin: https://www.blueorigin.com/

Images, Video, Text, Credits: Credits: Blue Origin/SciNews/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Roscosmos - Soyuz-2.1b launches new GLONASS-M navigation satellite

Glonass Navigation Satellites patch.

Dec. 11, 2019

Soyuz-2.1b launches new GLONASS-M navigation satellite. Image Credit: ROSCOSMOS

A Soyuz-2.1b rocket launched a new GLONASS-M satellite from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia, on 11 December 2019, at 08:54 UTC (11:54 local time).

Soyuz-2.1b launches new GLONASS-M navigation satellite

According to official sources, the navigation satellite was placed into the desired orbit and is functioning normally. GLONASS-M (ГЛОНАСС-М), also known as Uragan-M (Ураган-М) is part of the Russian GLONASS satellite navigation system.

More information:

Flight tests of the Soyuz-2 space launch complex began at the Plesetsk cosmodrome on November 8, 2004. Over the past fourteen years, 37 launches of Soyuz-2 rocket launchers of modernization stages 1A, 1B and 1B have been conducted from the northern cosmodrome.

GLONASS-M satellite. Image Credit: ROSCOSMOS

The Glonass-M spacecraft launched into orbit has replenished the orbital grouping of the Russian Glonass Global Navigation Satellite System and is at the stage of entry into the system. At present, the Glonass orbital group comprises 27 spacecraft, of which one spacecraft of the new generation, Glonass-K, is undergoing flight tests and one Glonass-M spacecraft is in orbital reserve.

Roscosmos Press Release: https://www.roscosmos.ru/27850/

For more information about GLONASS network, visit: http://www.russianspaceweb.com/uragan.html

Images, Video, Text, Credits: Roscosmos/Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation/SciNews/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Wide Range of Space Research Keeping Crew Busy Today

ISS - Expedition 61 Mission patch.

December 11, 2019

The International Space Station is a hive of science activity today as the Expedition 61 crew and mission controllers initiate a variety of space research.

Inside the orbiting lab, mice are being scanned to study how their bones change in microgravity. Astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch placed the rodents in a new bone densitometer and imaged their bones. The new Rodent Research-19 study is investigating two proteins that may prevent muscle and bone loss in space.

Image above: NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir conduct research operations inside the Japanese Kibo lab module’s Life Sciences Glovebox. Image Credit: NASA.

NASA Flight Engineer Andrew Morgan and ESA Commander Luca Parmitano were in the Columbus lab module exploring how they grip and manipulate objects in space. Insights may help future astronauts adjust to long-term missions farther into space and possibly planetary exploration.

Mission controllers on the ground today commanded the Canadarm2 robotic arm to reach into the back of the SpaceX Dragon resupply ship and extract the new HISUI experiment device. HISUI, or Hyperspectral Imagery Suite, is a unique Earth imaging system that can benefit agriculture, forestry and other environmental areas. HISUI will be installed on the outside of the Kibo lab module to scan the Earth’s surface using high spectral resolution.

International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: NASA