Orbiter.ch Space News

lundi 3 février 2020

Astronaut Christina Koch’s Space Station Science Scrapbook

ISS - International Space Station patch.

Feb. 3, 2020

After almost a year in space, NASA astronaut Christina Koch is coming home. When Koch returns to Earth, she will have lived in space for 328 days, setting the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman. On Dec. 28, 2019, she surpassed the previous record of 288 days held by NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson. Her extended mission will provide researchers the opportunity to observe effects of long-duration spaceflight on a woman as the agency plans to return to the Moon under the Artemis program and prepare for human exploration at Mars. During this record-setting mission, Koch spent many of her hours on science activities aboard the space station and wore many hats: farmer, biologist, physicist, engineer, test subject and many more.

Christina Koch - Space Station Scientist

Here is a look back at Koch’s efforts as she conducted research in microgravity on Mizuna mustard greens, combustion, bioprinting and kidney diseases, among others.

Official portrait of NASA astronaut Christina Koch. Image Credit: NASA

Human Health and Performance

Astronauts facilitate and conduct numerous experiments during their missions, and they also are experiments themselves, helping us understand how the human body adapts to spaceflight. Investigations in which Koch participated as a research subject volunteer are helping provide standard baseline measurements with better health data from space that will allow researchers to compare data more accurately; evaluate strategies for improved individual and team performance; and ensure astronauts maintain healthy immune systems. Here, Koch is helping store samples for a Human Research Program experiment.

Space Crop Production

Astronauts grew leafy greens frequently during Koch’s time aboard. She conducted a number of botany studies in microgravity that will help us better understand the role of gravity and the spaceflight environment on plant biology at many levels: cellular, tissue, whole plant and community. In the bottom picture, Koch collects and packs Mizuna mustard greens grown in space. Some of the leaves were consumed by the crew as a taste test, while the rest were stowed in a science freezer for analysis on Earth. In addition to providing fresh food for the crew, results of this research will help engineers to design improved sustainable biological life support systems.

New Robotic Partners

Inside Japan's Kibo laboratory module, Koch monitors a test of the free-flying Astrobee robotic assistant. Astrobee is designed to help scientists and engineers develop and test new technologies to assist astronauts with routine chores, and give ground controllers additional eyes and ears on the space station. The set of three autonomous robots, powered by fans and vision-based navigation, perform crew monitoring, take environmental samples and assist logistics management on the orbiting laboratory.

Keeping the Flames Burning

Koch works on the Advanced Combustion via Microgravity Experiments (ACME) Chamber insert, which is attached to the maintenance work area for hardware replacement. ACME is a set of five independent studies researching how fire behaves in space with the goal of improving fuel efficiency, reducing pollutant production in combustion on Earth and preventing spacecraft fires. The crew members set up the hardware, gas bottles, etc. for each set of tests, which scientists run from Earth at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

Studying Kidney Health

Although serious medical conditions caused by poor kidney health – including osteoporosis and kidney stones – could occur during spaceflight, none of these has been observed during long-duration missions. Here Koch works inside the Life Sciences Glovebox conducting research for the Kidney Cells investigation that seeks innovative treatments for kidney stones, osteoporosis and toxic chemical exposures. This experiment examines how kidney health is affected by microgravity and other factors of space travel, including water conservation and recycling, and altered diets. The results of these studies will help protect the health of astronauts and contribute to better treatments for kidney-related conditions on Earth.

One of the Coldest Places in the Universe

Koch floats through the station with science hardware in tow. The equipment is stowed inside a cargo transfer bag retrieved from the SpaceX Dragon resupply ship. The hardware is part of the Cold Atom Laboratory that produces clouds of atoms chilled to about one ten billionth of a degree above absolute zero: much colder than the average temperature of deep space. At these low temperatures, atoms have almost no motion, allowing scientists to study fundamental behaviors and quantum characteristics that are difficult or impossible to probe at higher temperatures.

The Window to the World

Here Koch looks through the station's "window to the world," the seven-windowed cupola. She was photographing landmarks as the orbiting lab flew 259 miles above the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America. While astronauts look out this window for fun, they also use it to make valuable Earth observations such as unexpected weather events, which robotic sensing platforms cannot capture. The station is home to many Earth observation experiments and some of the highest quality optics ever flown on a human-occupied spacecraft. For example, the International Space Station Agricultural Camera (ISSAC) collected data from the red and near-infrared bands of the light spectrum to reveal changes in vegetation on the northern Great Plains far below.

Mixing It Up

Here Koch checks out hardware for the Capillary Structures experiment. The investigation studies a new method of using structures of specific shapes to manage fluid and gas mixtures for more reliable life support systems on future space missions. Capillary systems can be simpler to use than current water-purification and air-cleaning systems because they rely on specific geometric shapes and fluid dynamics rather than complex machinery. Similar technology also could be used in water recovery systems, desalination plants and other facilities on Earth.

Getting a Closer Look

Koch uses a microscope to observe and photograph growing protein crystal samples as part of the Microgravity Crystals experiment. Protein crystals grown in microgravity are larger and more organized than those grown on Earth in the presence of gravity. Understanding how and why this is can help researchers from all fields better develop, formulate, manufacture and store various products, including pharmaceuticals.

Printing Tissue

The BioFabrication Facility installed during Koch’s time on station will be tested for its ability to print organ-like tissues, taking a step toward proving the viability of making human organs in space. The orbiting laboratory is a great place to perform this type of research because printing the tiny, complex structures found inside human organs, such as capillary structures, may be done easier in microgravity since it has proven difficult so far to accomplish in Earth’s gravity environment.

Ready for Deployment

Station Preps for Crew Departure and New U.S. Cargo Ship

ISS - Expedition 61 Mission patch.

February 3, 2020

NASA astronaut Christina Koch and two fellow Expedition 61 crewmembers are in their final week aboard the International Space Station. The other three lab residents are gearing up for next week’s arrival of a U.S. space freighter.

Koch will wrap up a 328-day mission aboard the orbiting lab on Thursday. Koch blasted off to join the station crew on March 14 with Expedition 59-60 crewmates Nick Hague and Alexey Ovchinin. Hague and Ovchinin have since returned home on Oct. 3.

Image above: NASA astronaut Christina Koch works on the Cold Atom Lab that enables research into the quantum effects of gases chilled lower than the average temperature of the universe. Image Credit: NASA.

Koch will land in Kazakhstan Thursday at 4:12 a.m. EST (3:12 p.m. Kazakh time) aboard the Soyuz MS-13 crew ship with Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos and Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency). Skvortsov and Parmitano began their mission with NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan on July 20. Morgan is due to return to Earth in April.

When Koch lands, her mission-stay will be second only to former astronaut Scott Kelly. He lived aboard the station for 340 continuous days for the single longest spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut.

She and her two homebound crewmates prepared today for the flight back to Earth. The trio familiarized themselves with the return procedures and the gravity loads they will experience upon reentering Earth’s atmosphere.

Image above: Flying over Arctic Ocean, near Australia, seen by EarthCam on ISS, speed: 27'549 Km/h, altitude: 432,82 Km, image captured by Roland Berga (on Earth in Switzerland) from International Space Station (ISS) using ISS-HD Live Now application with EarthCam's from ISS on February 3, 2020 at 15:27 UTC. Image Credits: Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Expedition 62 officially begins when Koch and her crewmates undock Thursday at 12:50 a.m. Morgan and fellow NASA astronaut Jessica Meir will continue their stay in space with Commander Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos.

Meir and Morgan are getting ready for the next Cygnus space freighter and its cargo of several tons of science experiments and crew supplies. Cygnus will launch Sunday at 5:39 p.m. and rendezvous with the station two days later for a robotic capture at 4:30 a.m.

Related links:

Expedition 61: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition61/index.html

Expedition 62: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition62/index.html

Soyuz MS-13 crew ship: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/soyuz-launches-arrivals-and-departures/

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), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA’s MAVEN Explores Mars to Understand Radio Interference at Earth

NASA - MAVEN Mission patch.

Feb. 3, 2020

NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft has discovered “layers” and “rifts” in the electrically charged part of the upper atmosphere (the ionosphere) of Mars. The phenomenon is very common at Earth and causes unpredictable disruptions to radio communications. However, we do not fully understand them because they form at altitudes that are very difficult to explore at Earth. The unexpected discovery by MAVEN shows that Mars is a unique laboratory to explore and better understand this highly disruptive phenomenon.

MAVEN Explores Mars to Understand Radio Interference at Earth

Video above: NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) spacecraft has discovered “layers” and “rifts” in the electrically charged part of the upper atmosphere (the ionosphere) of Mars. The phenomenon is very common at Earth and causes unpredictable disruptions to radio communications. However, we do not fully understand them because they form at altitudes that are very difficult to explore at Earth. The unexpected discovery by MAVEN shows that Mars is a unique laboratory to explore and better understand this highly disruptive phenomenon. Video Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

“The layers are so close above all our heads at Earth, and can be detected by anyone with a radio, but they are still quite mysterious,” says Glyn Collinson of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, lead author of a paper on this research appearing February 3 in Nature Astronomy. “Who would have thought one of the best ways to understand them is to launch a satellite 300 million miles to Mars?”

If your favorite radio station has ever jammed or been replaced by another station, a likely cause are layers of electrically charged gas, called “plasma”, in the very upper-most region of the atmosphere, called the “ionosphere”. Forming suddenly and lasting for several hours, these layers act like giant mirrors in the sky, causing radio signals from far away to bounce over the horizon where they can interfere with local transmissions, like two people trying to talk over one another. The layers also can cause interference with radio communications by aircraft and shipping, and can blind military radar.

Image above: Graphic illustrating radio signals from a remote station (bent purple line) interfering with a local station (black tower) after being reflected off a plasma layer in the ionosphere. Image Credits: NASA Goddard/CI lab.

At Earth, the layers form at an altitude of about 60 miles (approximately 100km) where the air is too thin for an aircraft to fly, but too thick for any satellite to orbit. The only way to reach them is with a rocket, but these missions last only tens of minutes before falling back to Earth. “We’ve known they exist for over 80 years, but we know so little about what goes on inside them, because no satellite can get low enough to reach the layers,” says Collinson, “at least, no satellite at Earth”.

At Mars, spacecraft such as MAVEN can orbit at lower altitudes and can sample these features directly. MAVEN carries several scientific instruments that measure plasmas in the atmosphere and space around Mars. Recent measurements from one of these instruments detected unexpected sudden spikes in the abundance of plasma as it flew through the Martian ionosphere. Joe Grebowsky, former MAVEN project scientist at NASA Goddard, immediately recognized the spike from his previous experience with rocket flights through the layers at Earth. Not only had MAVEN discovered that such layers can occur at other planets than Earth, but the new results reveal that Mars offers what Earth cannot, a place where we can reliably explore these layers with satellites.

Image above: Graphic illustrating the MAVEN spacecraft encountering plasma layers at Mars. Image Credits: NASA Goddard/CI lab.

“The low altitudes observable by MAVEN will fill in a great gap in our understanding of this region on both Mars and Earth, with really significant discoveries to be had,” says Grebowsky, a co-author on the paper.

MAVEN observations are already overturning many of our existing ideas about the phenomena: MAVEN has discovered that the layers also have a mirror-opposite, a “rift”, where plasma is less abundant. The existence of such “rifts” in nature was completely unknown before their discovery at Mars by MAVEN, and overturns existing scientific models which say they cannot form. Additionally, unlike at Earth where the layers are short-lived and unpredictable, the Martian layers are surprisingly long-lived and persistent.

These new discoveries already have given us a better understanding of the fundamental processes that underpin these layers, and future exploration at Mars will allow us to build better scientific models of how they form. While, much like the weather, we cannot stop them from forming, perhaps someday the new insights from Mars may help us to forecast them at Earth, meaning more reliable radio communication for us all.

This research was funded by the MAVEN mission. MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the MAVEN project. Partner institutions include Lockheed Martin, the University of California at Berkeley, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NASA is exploring our Solar System and beyond, uncovering worlds, stars, and cosmic mysteries near and far with our powerful fleet of space and ground-based missions.

Related links:

Nature Astronomy: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-019-0984-8

MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/maven/main/index.html

Video (mentioned), Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Bill Steigerwald/Nancy Jones/Goddard Space Flight Center, by Glyn Collinson.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

dimanche 2 février 2020

Space Station Science Highlights: Week of January 27, 2020

ISS - Expedition 61 Mission patch.

Feb. 02, 2020

Scientific investigations taking place aboard the International Space Station the week of Jan. 27 included studies of hardening arteries and recycling in space. NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan and Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) completed the fourth and final spacewalk to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) on Jan. 25 – a record-breaking ninth spacewalk for the Expedition 61 crew – and the Cygnus cargo craft departed the space station on Jan. 31. After its departure, Cygnus used the SlingShot system to deploy eight CubeSats studying different optical and communication technologies as well as atmospheric and natural phenomena.

Space to Ground: Luca's Record: 01/31/2020

Now in its 20th year of continuous human presence, the space station provides a platform for long-duration research in microgravity and for learning to live and work in space. Experience gained on the orbiting lab supports Artemis, NASA’s program to go forward to the Moon and on to Mars.

Here are details on some of the microgravity investigations currently taking place:

Monitoring blood vessel changes

Some crew members returning from their time on the space station have much stiffer arteries than when they went into space. An investigation sponsored by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Vascular Echo, examines changes in blood vessels and the heart while crew members are in space and their recovery after return to Earth. The results could provide insight into potential countermeasures to help maintain the health of crew members in space and to improve quality of life for people on Earth. The crew conducted scans and blood pressure measurements for the investigation during the week.

Recycling in space

Ground teams successfully initiated and completed the first of five sample prints using material already recycled once on the ground for Refabricator. This investigation demonstrates a process for repeated closed-loop recycling of a material for additive manufacturing or 3D printing in space. The technology eventually could allow crews on long space missions to keep reusing waste plastic materials for 3D printing, enabling sustainable fabrication and repair of tools and hardware and reducing waste. Refabricator represents a key component of NASA's In-Space Manufacturing (ISM) technology development.

During the week, the crew also installed hardware for another recycling technology, the Made in Space - Recycler. It creates 3D printer filament from polymer materials and parts that have reached the end of their useful lives. Recycling would reduce the weight and mass of supplies that must be brought into space from Earth, important for deep space missions.

Answering burning questions

Animation above: Image from operations for the Combined Combustion investigation, which studies flame spread in confined spaces, where it may pose a more serious hazard than in open spaces. Microgravity allows scientists to better study the underlying physics of flame spread. Animation Credit: NASA.

The Confined Combustion investigation studies flame spread in confined spaces, specifically the interactions between spreading flames and surrounding walls. Flame spread in spaces such as buildings and vehicles may pose a more serious hazard than it does in open spaces. Because gravity complicates the process of fire growth, microgravity allows scientists to better study the underlying physics of flame spread. Crew members conducted operations for the experiment using different materials and baffle types.

Other investigations on which the crew performed work:

- Food Acceptability examines the effect of repetitive consumption of the food currently available during spaceflight. “Menu fatigue” from a limited choice of foods over time may contribute to the loss of body mass often experienced by crew members, potentially affecting astronaut health, especially as mission length increases.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7562

- Standard Measures captures an ongoing, optimized set of measures from crew members to characterize how their bodies adapt to living in space. Researchers use these measures to create a data repository for high-level monitoring of the effectiveness of countermeasures and better interpretation of health and performance outcomes.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7711

Image above: NASA astronaut Christina Koch works on the Cold Atom Lab (CAL), which enables research into the quantum effects of gases chilled to nearly absolute zero, colder than the average temperature of the universe. Image Credit: NASA.

- The Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) produces clouds of atoms chilled to temperatures much colder than deep space so scientists can study fundamental behaviors and quantum characteristics that are difficult or impossible to probe at higher temperatures.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=7396

- Astronauts show accelerated arterial stiffening, thicker artery walls, and other aging-like changes after spending six months in space. Vascular Aging monitors these changes using artery ultrasounds, blood samples, and other measures to identify risk and possible mechanisms for reducing that risk.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7644

- The ISS Experience creates virtual reality videos from footage taken by astronauts of different aspects of crew life, execution of science and the international partnerships involved on the space station.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7877

- The Structure and Response of Spherical Diffusion Flames (s-Flame), part of the ACME project, advances prediction of the structure and dynamics of soot-free and sooty flames. Results could contribute to engines with improved efficiency and reduced emissions on Earth.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=2063

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1651

Image above: Plant pillows at Kennedy Space Center’s Space Station Processing Facility packed and ready for their upcoming flight on Northrop Grumman’s 13th resupply services (NG-13) mission. The pillows, a common method used to grow plants in space, are part of a series of VEG-03 experiments studying the growth of three types of leafy greens in a microgravity environment. Image Credit: NASA.

- Veggie Monitoring collects microbial samples from the surface of the station’s plant production system to help establish requirements to protect these systems, plants and crew from contamination on future long exploration missions.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7949

Image above: The AstroRad vest floating inside the space station before a crew member puts in on to test fit, range of motion and other factors. The vest could help protect crew members from space radiation on missions to the Moon and Mars. Image Credit: NASA.

- For AstroRad, crew members provide feedback on a vest designed to protect them from radiation caused by unpredictable solar particle events (SPEs), including how easy the vest is to put on, fit and feel, and range of motion allowed.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7803

Related links:

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=729

SlingShot: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=7847

Vascular Echo: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1664

Refabricator: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7321

Made in Space - Recycler: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7745

Confined Combustion: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7886

ISS National Lab: https://www.issnationallab.org/

Spot the Station: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/

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), Animation (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA/Carrie Gilder/John Love, Lead Increment Scientist Expedition 61.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

vendredi 31 janvier 2020

Hubble Spies Bar, Baby Stars

NASA - Hubble Space Telescope patch.

Jan. 31, 2020

The galaxy depicted in this image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is a barred spiral known as NGC 7541, in the constellation of Pisces (the Fishes).

A barred spiral is a galaxy with whirling, pinwheeling, spiral arms, and a bright center that is intersected by a bar of gas and stars. This bar cuts directly through the galaxy’s central region, and is thought to invigorate the region somewhat, sparking activity and fueling myriad processes that may otherwise have never occurred or have previously ground to a halt (star formation and active galactic nuclei being key examples). We think bars exist in up to two-thirds of all spiral galaxies, including our own home, the Milky Way.

NGC 7541 is actually observed to have a higher-than-usual star formation rate, adding weight to the theory that spiral bars act as stellar nurseries, corralling and funneling inward the material and fuel needed to create and nurture new baby stars. This galaxy and its nearby companion NGC 7537 make up a pair of galaxies located about 110 million light-years away from us.

Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

For more information about Hubble, visit:

http://hubblesite.org/

http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

http://www.spacetelescope.org/

Text Credits: ESA (European Space Agency)/NASA/Rob Garner/Image, Animation Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess et al.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

U.S. Cygnus Space Freighter Departs Station After 88 Days

Northrop Grumman - NG-12 / S.S. Alan Bean Cygnus patch.

January 31, 2020

Northrup Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft departed the International Space Station’s at 9:36 a.m. EST after Expedition 61 Flight Engineers Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir of NASA commanded its release from the Canadarm2 robotic arm. At the time of release, the station was flying about 250 miles over the South Pacific just off the West Coast of Chile.

For this mission, Cygnus demonstrated a new release position for departure operations and incorporated the first ground-controlled release. The new orientation allowed for easier drift away from the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm.

NG-12: S.S. Alan Bean Cygnus departure

Within 24 hours, Cygnus will begin its secondary mission deploying a series of payloads. The departing spacecraft will move a safe distance away from the space station before deploying a series of CubeSats: HuskySat-1 (University of Washington), SwampSat II (University of Florida), EdgeCube (Sonoma State University), and CIRis (Utah State University).

Northrop Grumman flight controllers in Dulles, Virginia, will initiate its deorbit and execute a safe, destructive reentry into Earth’s atmosphere at the end of February.

Image above: The U.S. Cygnus space freighter is pictured moments after the Canadarm2 robotic arm released the 12th resupply ship from Northrop Grumman on January 31, 2020. Image Credit: NASA TV.

The next Cygnus is set to launch to station on Feb. 9 from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia carrying another batch of research.

The spacecraft arrived on station November 2 delivering cargo under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract.

Related article:

New Research Launching to Station Aboard Northrop Grumman’s 13th Resupply Mission
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2020/01/new-research-launching-to-station.html

Related links:

Cygnus space freighter: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/northrop-grumman-cygnus-launches-arrivals-and-departures/

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

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope Ends Mission of Astronomical Discovery

NASA - Spitzer Space Telescope patch.

January 31, 2020

Image above: NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has concluded after more than 16 years of exploring the universe in infrared light. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

After more than 16 years studying the universe in infrared light, revealing new wonders in our solar system, our galaxy, and beyond, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope's mission has come to an end.

Mission engineers confirmed at 2:30 p.m. PST (5:30 p.m. EST) Thursday the spacecraft was placed in safe mode, ceasing all science operations. After the decommissioning was confirmed, Spitzer Project Manager Joseph Hunt declared the mission had officially ended.

Launched in 2003, Spitzer was one of NASA's four Great Observatories, along with the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. The Great Observatories program demonstrated the power of using different wavelengths of light to create a fuller picture of the universe.

"Spitzer has taught us about entirely new aspects of the cosmos and taken us many steps further in understanding how the universe works, addressing questions about our origins, and whether or not are we alone," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "This Great Observatory has also identified some important and new questions and tantalizing objects for further study, mapping a path for future investigations to follow. Its immense impact on science certainly will last well beyond the end of its mission."

Among its many scientific contributions, Spitzer studied comets and asteroids in our own solar system and found a previously unidentified ring around Saturn. It studied star and planet formation, the evolution of galaxies from the ancient universe to today, and the composition of interstellar dust. It also proved to be a powerful tool for detecting exoplanets and characterizing their atmospheres. Spitzer's best-known work may be detecting the seven Earth-size planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system – the largest number of terrestrial planets ever found orbiting a single star – and determining their masses and densities.

In 2016, following a review of operating astrophysics missions, NASA made a decision to close out the Spitzer mission in 2018 in anticipation of the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, which also will observe the universe in infrared light. When Webb's launch was postponed, Spitzer was granted an extension to continue operations until this year. This gave Spitzer additional time to continue producing transformative science, including insights that will pave the way for Webb, which is scheduled to launch in 2021.

"Everyone who has worked on this mission should be extremely proud today," Hunt said. "There are literally hundreds of people who contributed directly to Spitzer's success, and thousands who used its scientific capabilities to explore the universe. We leave behind a powerful scientific and technological legacy."

Image above: Spitzer Project Scientist Joseph Hunt stands in Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, on Jan. 30, 2020, declaring the spacecraft decommissioned and the Spitzer mission concluded. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Keeping Cool

Though it was not NASA's first space-based infrared telescope, Spitzer was the most sensitive infrared telescope in history when it launched, and it delivered a deeper and more far-reaching view of the infrared cosmos than its predecessors. Above Earth's atmosphere, Spitzer could detect some wavelengths that cannot be observed from the ground. The spacecraft's Earth-trailing orbit placed it far away from our planet's infrared emissions, which also gave Spitzer better sensitivity than was possible for larger telescopes on Earth.

Spitzer's prime mission came to an end in 2009, when the telescope exhausted its supply of the liquid helium coolant necessary for operating two of its three instruments – the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) and Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS). The mission was deemed a success, having achieved all of its primary science objectives and more. But Spitzer's story wasn't over. Engineers and scientists were able to keep the mission going using only two out of four wavelength channels on the third instrument, the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC). Despite increasing engineering and operations challenges, Spitzer continued to produce transformational science for another 10 1/2 years – far longer than mission planners anticipated.

During its extended mission, Spitzer continued to make significant scientific discoveries. In 2014, it detected evidence of asteroid collisions in a newly formed planetary system, providing evidence that such smash-ups might be common in early solar systems and crucial to the formation of some planets. In 2016, Spitzer worked with Hubble to image the most distant galaxy ever detected. From 2016 onward, Spitzer studied the TRAPPIST-1 system for more than 1,000 hours. All of Spitzer's data are free and available to the public in the Spitzer data archive. Mission scientists say they expect researchers to continue making discoveries with Spitzer long after the spacecraft’s decommissioning.

"I think that Spitzer is an example of the very best that people can achieve," said Spitzer Project Scientist Michael Werner. "I feel very fortunate to have worked on this mission, and to have seen the ingenuity, doggedness and brilliance that people on the team showed. When you tap into those things and empower people to use them, then truly incredible things will happen."

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, conducts mission operations and manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech in Pasadena. Spacecraft operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at IPAC at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, California, built the Spitzer spacecraft, and during development served as lead for systems and engineering, and integration and testing. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation in Boulder, Colorado provided the optics, cryogenics and thermal shells and shields for Spitzer.

Ball developed the IRS instrument, with science leadership based at Cornell University, and the MIPS instrument, with science leadership based at the University of Arizona in Tucson. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, developed the IRAC instrument, with science leadership based at the Harvard Smithsonian Astrophysics Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

View some of the amazing images showcasing some of Spitzer's greatest discoveries at:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7221

Related articles:

NASA Celebrates the Legacy of the Spitzer Space Telescope
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2020/01/nasa-celebrates-legacy-of-spitzer-space.html

NASA Says Goodbye to One of Agency's Great Observatories
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2020/01/nasa-says-goodbye-to-one-of-agencys.html

Sixteen Images for Spitzer's Sweet 16
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/08/sixteen-images-for-spitzers-sweet-16.html

How NASA's Spitzer Has Stayed Alive for So Long
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/06/how-nasas-spitzer-has-stayed-alive-for.html

Related links:

Spitzer data archive: https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/Missions/spitzer.html

Spitzer Space Telescope: https://www.nasa.gov/spitzer

Images (mentioned), Animation, Text, Credits: NASA/Grey Hautaluoma/Elizabeth Landau/JPL/Calla Cofield.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch