CNSA Long March 4B launches Gaofen-2 and BRITE-PL-2

CNSA - China National Space Administration logo.

Aug. 19, 2014

China’s back to launch action with the Tuesday launch of a new high-resolution observation satellite. The Gaofen-2 (GF-2) was launched at 03:15 UTC by a Long March-4B (Chang Zheng-4B) rocket from the LC9 launch complex of the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. Also on board was the Polish satellite BRITE-PL-2, also known as “Heweliusz”.

Long March-4B (Chang Zheng-4B) rocket launch

The Gaofen satellites are a series of high-resolution optical Earth observation satellites of China National Space Administration. In English ‘gao fen’ means ‘high resolution’.

The civilian High-Definition Earth Observation Satellite program was proposed in 2006, receiving government approval on the next years and initiated in 2010.

The plan was to launch six Gaofen satellites between 2013 and 2016. The first satellite, Gaofen-1, was launched on April 26, 2013, by the Long March-2D (Y18) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

Gaofen satellite series

The main goal of the Gaofen series is to provide near real-time observations for disaster prevention and relief, climate change monitoring, geographical mapping, environment and resource surveying, as well as for precision agriculture support.

The major users of the observation data will be the Ministry of Land and Resources, Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the Ministry of Agriculture.

The BRITE-Poland satellites:

The first scientific satellites to explore the stars that are brighter and hotter than the Sun were developed in Poland during between 2010 and 2012. The project will will be helpful in understanding the internal structure of the biggest stars in our galaxy.

Star oscillation will be investigated with the help of BRITE satellite constellations, designed within the Bright Target Explorer (BRITE) project and developed as the Canadian-Austrian-Polish cooperation.

The satellites will be taking images of the sky with a wide-field camera in order to precisely measure the brightness of the brightest stars.

Polish satellite BRITE-PL-2, also known as “Heweliusz”

Measuring these stars precisely from the Earth’s surface proves to be a difficult task, even though they are easily detectable during a cloudless night. A few hundred (500-800) stars of the Milky Way will be observed during the experiment.

Polish scientists intend to investigate the mechanism of convection, which is the transportation of energy that takes place in the hottest stars. This is an important occurrence in nature that physicists have known for over 100 years, however it does not yet have a mathematical description. The BRITE project will help explain the phenomenon.

For more information about China National Space Administration (CNSA), visit: http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/n615709/cindex.html

Images, Video, Text, Credits: CNSA / NASA Spaceflight.com, Rui C. Barbosa / Gunter Space Page.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA's RXTE Satellite Decodes the Rhythm of an Unusual Black Hole

NASA - RXTE Mission patch.

August 19, 2014

Astronomers have uncovered rhythmic pulsations from a rare type of black hole 12 million light-years away by sifting through archival data from NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) satellite.

The signals have helped astronomers identify an unusual midsize black hole called M82 X-1, which is the brightest X-ray source in a galaxy known as Messier 82. Most black holes formed by dying stars are modestly-sized, measuring up to around 25 times the mass of our sun. And most large galaxies harbor monster, or supermassive, black holes that contain tens of thousands of times more mass.

“Between the two extremes of stellar and supermassive black holes, it's a real desert, with only about half a dozen objects whose inferred masses place them in the middle ground," said Tod Strohmayer, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

NASA RXTE Satellite Catches the Beat of a Midsize Black Hole

Video above: Explore M82 X-1 and learn more about how astronomers used X-ray fluctuations to determine its status as an intermediate-mass black hole. Image Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Astronomers from Goddard and the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) have suspected M82 X-1 of being midsize for at least a decade, but compelling evidence excluding it from being a stellar black hole proved elusive.

"For reasons that are very hard to understand, these objects have resisted standard measurement techniques," said Richard Mushotzky, a professor of astronomy at UMCP.

By going over past RXTE observations, the astronomers found specific changes in brightness that helped them determine M82 X-1 measures around 400 solar masses.

As gas falls toward a black hole, it heats up and emits X-rays.  Variations in X-ray brightness reflect changes occurring in the gas. The most rapid fluctuations happen  near the brink of the black hole’s event horizon, the point beyond which nothing, not even light, can escape.

Astronomers call these rhythmic pulses quasi-periodic oscillations, or QPOs.  For stellar black holes, astronomers have established that the larger the mass, the slower the QPOs, but they could not be sure what they were seeing from M82 X-1 was an extension of this pattern.

"When we study fluctuations in X-rays from many stellar-mass black holes, we see both slow and fast QPOs, but the fast ones often come in pairs with a specific 3:2 rhythmic relationship," explained Dheeraj Pasham, UMCP graduate student. For every three pulses from one member of a QPO pair, its partner pulses twice.

NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) satellite

By analyzing six years of RXTE data, the team located X-ray variations that reliably repeat about 5.1 and 3.3 times a second, a 3:2 relationship. The combined presence of slow QPOs and a faster pair in a 3:2 rhythm sets a standard scale allowing astronomers to extend proven relationships used to determine the masses of stellar-mass black holes.

The results of the study were published online in the Aug. 17 issue of the journal Nature.

Launched in late 1995 and decommissioned in 2012, RXTE is one of NASA's longest-serving astrophysics missions. Its legacy of unique measurements continues to provide researchers with valuable insights into the extreme environments of neutron stars and black holes.

A new NASA X-ray mission called the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) is slated for launch to the International Space Station in late 2016. Pasham has identified six potential middle-mass black holes that NICER may be able to explore for similar signals.

For more information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/index.html

Related Links:

Paper: "A 400-solar-mass black hole in the M82 galaxy":  http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13710.html

Download high-resolution video from NASA Goddard's Science Visualization Studio:  http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000

Image, Video, Text, Credits: NASA / Felicia Chou / Goddard Space Flight Center / Lynn Chandler.

Cheers, Orbiter.ch

Station Spacewalkers Deploy Nanosatellite, Install and Retrieve Science

ISS - Expedition 40 Mission patch.

August 18, 2014

Two Expedition 40 spacewalkers, clad in Russian Orlan spacesuits, wrapped up a 5-hour, 11-minute excursion outside the International Space Station at 3:13 p.m. EDT Monday.  Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev deployed a small science satellite, retrieved and installed experiment packages and inspected components on the exterior of the orbital laboratory.

Shortly after the spacewalk began at 10:02 a.m., Artemyev manually deployed Chasqui 1, a Peruvian nanosatellite designed to take pictures of the Earth with a pair of cameras and transmit the images to a ground station. The project is part of an effort by the National University of Engineering in Peru to gain experience in satellite technology and emerging information and communication technologies.

Image above: Flight Engineer Oleg Artemyev deploys the Chasqui 1 nanosatellite outside the Pirs docking compartment near the beginning of Monday's spacewalk. Image Credit: NASA TV.

The spacewalkers installed the EXPOSE-R2 experiment package, a European Space Agency-sponsored suite of experiments, on the exterior of the Zvezda service module. The package includes two astrobiology studies that will investigate biomaterials and extremophiles – organisms that are tolerant of environmental extremes. Results from these experiments may contribute to life-detection strategies for future robotic exploration of Mars.

While on the conical section of Zvezda, they attached a handrail clamp holder for the Automatic Phased Array antenna. Skvortsov and Artemyev set up that communication systems antenna during their first spacewalk on June 19.

The cosmonauts also set up the Plume Impingement and Deposit Monitoring unit on the Poisk Mini Research Module-2.

Skvortsov and Artemyev retrieved several science packages designed to expose a variety of materials to the harsh environment of space. While on Poisk, they removed one cassette and install another on a materials experiment known by its Russian acronym SKK. The spacewalkers also retrieved a panel of sample materials from the Vinoslivost payload.

Spacewalker Throws 17'500 MPH Pitch To Deploy Satellite

The retrieval of a Biorisk experiment container outside Pirs completed the science package roundup for the two cosmonauts. Biorisk studies the effects of microbes on spacecraft structures.

Skvortsov and Artemyev also collected residue samples from a window on Zvezda.

During the spacewalk, Commander Steve Swanson was isolated to the Poisk module and his Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft docked there due to the closure of hatches in support of the excursion. Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev arrived at the station March 27 aboard that Soyuz. Flight Engineers Reid Wiseman, Alexander Gerst and Max Suraev had access to much of the remaining area of the station, including the Zarya module, their Soyuz TMA-13M vehicle and the Rassvet module to which it docked on May 28, as well as the entirety of the U.S. segment of the station.

Monday’s spacewalk was the 181st in support of space station assembly and maintenance.

While he was isolated inside Poisk, Swanson photographed the masts of the station’s starboard solar arrays for further inspection by the flight team.

Wiseman spent part of his day setting up new test samples for the Canadian version of the Binary Colloidal Alloy Test, or BCAT-C1. Results from this investigation of colloids – mixtures of small particles distributed throughout a liquid – will help materials scientists to develop new consumer products with unique properties and longer shelf lives.

Image above: While Flight Engineer Alexander Skvortsov retrieves hardware inside the International Space Station's Pirs airlock, Flight Engineer Oleg Artemyev stretches his legs. Image Credit: NASA TV.

Later, Wiseman and Gerst teamed up for a conference call with the ground team to discuss Friday’s robotic release of Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus cargo vehicle.  Gerst, with assistance from Wiseman, released Cygnus from the 57-foot Canadarm2 robotic arm, completing the commercial cargo vehicle’s month-long mission to deliver nearly 3,300 pounds of science and supplies to the orbiting laboratory.

Cygnus fired its thrusters for the final time at 8:34 a.m. Sunday to enable the cargo ship to slip out of orbit for its fiery decent into the Earth’s atmosphere.  Shortly afterward, station crew members were able to photograph the vehicle as it began to break up harmlessly over the Pacific Ocean at 9:22 a.m.

Gerst rounded out his workday Monday relocating items stowed inside the Quest airlock to prepare that area for the installation of a new Nitrogen Oxygen Recharge System, or NORS, at a later date. Wiseman meanwhile conducted an inspection of the station’s portable emergency provisions, including fire extinguishers and portable breathing apparatuses.

For more information about the International Space Station (ISS), visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA / NASA TV.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

As Seen by Rosetta: Comet Surface Variations

ESA - Rosetta Mission patch.

August 15, 2014

A new image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko shows the diversity of surface structures on the comet's nucleus. It was taken by the Rosetta spacecraft's OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on August 7, 2014. At the time, the spacecraft was 65 miles (104 kilometers) away from the 2.5-mile-wide (4-kilometer) nucleus.

Image above: Image of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko shows the diversity of surface structures on the comet's nucleus. Image Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM.

In the image, the comet’s head (in the top half of the image) exhibits parallel linear features that resemble cliffs, and its neck displays scattered boulders on a relatively smooth, slumping surface. In comparison, the comet's body (lower half of the image) seems to exhibit a multi-variable terrain with peaks and valleys, and both smooth and rough topographic features.

A 3-D version of the image depicting the comet is available at: http://go.nasa.gov/1t3K3FU

Launched in March 2004, Rosetta was reactivated in January 2014 after a record 957 days in hibernation. Composed of an orbiter and lander, Rosetta's objectives are to study comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko up close in unprecedented detail, prepare for landing a probe on the comet's nucleus in November, and track its changes as it sweeps past the sun.

Image above: Rosetta's comet in 3D. Image Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA.

Comets are time capsules containing primitive material left over from the epoch when the sun and its planets formed. Rosetta's lander will obtain the first images taken from a comet's surface and will provide the first analysis of a comet's composition by drilling into the surface. Rosetta also will be the first spacecraft to witness at close proximity how a comet changes as it is subjected to the increasing intensity of the sun's radiation. Observations will help scientists learn more about the origin and evolution of our solar system, and the role comets may have played in seeding Earth with water.

The scientific imaging system, OSIRIS, was built by a consortium led by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (Germany) in collaboration with Center of Studies and Activities for Space, University of Padua (Italy), the Astrophysical Laboratory of Marseille (France), the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, CSIC (Spain), the Scientific Support Office of the European Space Agency (Netherlands), the National Institute for Aerospace Technology (Spain), the Technical University of Madrid (Spain), the Department of Physics and Astronomy of Uppsala University (Sweden) and the Institute of Computer and Network Engineering of the TU Braunschweig (Germany). OSIRIS was financially supported by the national funding agencies of Germany (DLR), France (CNES), Italy (ASI), Spain, and Sweden and the ESA Technical Directorate.

Illustration above: Rosetta orbiting comet 67P (photo-montage by Orbiter.ch Aerospace, the distance and sizes between the comet and the probe are not realistic) original images credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA.

Rosetta is an ESA mission with contributions from its member states and NASA. Rosetta's Philae lander is provided by a consortium led by the German Aerospace Center, Cologne; Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Gottingen; French National Space Agency, Paris; and the Italian Space Agency, Rome. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the U.S. participation in the Rosetta mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information on the U.S. instruments aboard Rosetta, visit: http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov

More information about Rosetta is available at: http://www.esa.int/rosetta

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA / J.D. Harrington / JPL / DC Agle / European Space Agency, Markus Bauer.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Curiosity Mars Rover Prepares for Fourth Rock Drilling

NASA - Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) patch.

August 15, 2014

Image above: In this image from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover looking up the ramp at the northeastern end of "Hidden Valley," a pale outcrop including drilling target "Bonanza King" is at the center of the scene. The rover's Navcam captured this northward view on Aug. 4, 2014, from the valley's sandy floor. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

The team operating NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has chosen a rock that looks like a pale paving stone as the mission's fourth drilling target, if it passes engineers' evaluation.

They call it "Bonanza King."

It is not at the "Pahrump Hills" site the team anticipated the rover might reach by mid-August. Unexpected challenges while driving in sand prompted the mission to reverse course last week after entering a valley where ripples of sand fill the floor and extend onto sloping margins. However, the new target outcrop's brightness and its position within the area's geological layers resemble the Pahrump Hills outcrop.

"Geologically speaking, we can tie the Bonanza King rocks to those at Pahrump Hills. Studying them here will give us a head start in understanding how they fit into the bigger picture of Gale Crater and Mount Sharp," said Curiosity Deputy Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Image above: This image from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover looks down the ramp at the northeastern end of "Hidden Valley" and across the sandy-floored valley to lower slopes of Mount Sharp on the horizon. The rover's Navigation Camera captured this southward view on Aug. 12, 2014, after exiting the valley. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Mount Sharp is the mission's long-term science destination, offering a stack of layers holding evidence about environmental changes on ancient Mars. The mountain rises from inside Gale Crater, where Curiosity landed in August 2012. All three rocks the rover has drilled so far have been geologically associated with the crater floor, rather than the mountain. Sample material pulled from the first two and delivered to Curiosity's onboard analytical laboratories in 2013 provided evidence for ancient environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. A drilled sample from Bonanza King may add understanding about how environments varied and evolved.

"This rock has an appearance quite different from the sandstones we've been driving through for several months," Vasavada said. "The landscape is changing, and that's worth checking out."

It lies in one of several patches of similar-looking slabs, up to about the size of dinner plates, on the ramp at the northeastern end of sandy-floored "Hidden Valley." Curiosity passed over them early last week when it entered the valley, headed toward Pahrump Hills and, beyond that, toward the planned entry point to Mount Sharp's slopes.

The rover's wheels slipped more in Hidden Valley's sand than the team had expected based on experience with one of the mission's test rovers driven on sand dunes in California. The valley is about the length of a football field and does not offer any navigable exits other than at the northeastern and southwestern ends.

Image above: The pale rocks in the foreground of this Aug. 14, 2014, image from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover include the "Bonanza King" target under consideration to become the fourth rock drilled by the rover. The view from Curiosity's front Hazcam faces southward down a ramp into sandy-floored "Hidden Valley." Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

"We need to gain a better understanding of the interaction between the wheels and Martian sand ripples, and Hidden Valley is not a good location for experimenting," said Curiosity Project Manager Jim Erickson of JPL.

Terrain with sharp rocks that Curiosity has previously navigated tore holes in the rover's wheels. Sandy terrain could still be part of the rover's route to Mount Sharp. Compared to sharp-rock terrain, sandy ground could reduce the pace of wheel damage. In some sandy areas, ripples don't cover the ground deeply wall-to-wall, as they do in Hidden Valley.

Curiosity reversed course and drove out of Hidden Valley northeastward.  On the way toward gaining a good viewpoint to assess a possible alternative route north of the valley, it passed over the pale paving stones on the ramp again. Where a rover wheel cracked one of the rocks, it exposed bright interior material, possibly from mineral veins.

Image above: This Aug. 14, 2012, image from the Mastcam on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows an outcrop that includes the "Bonanza King" rock under consideration as a drilling target. Raised ridges on the flat rocks are visible at right. Tread marks from a rover wheel are in the lower half. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

This summer, Curiosity's team has developed a plan for compressing the multi-day schedule of rover activities involved in collecting a drilled rock sample and delivering the sample for onboard analysis. This "condensed drilling" plan requires adjustment of staffing levels for several days, due to the complexity of the rover activities involved. The needed staffing had been slated for mid-August in anticipation of getting to Pahrump Hills.

"We considered postponing the first condensed drilling, and we considered other possible drilling targets, but this outcrop on the ramp is too appealing to pass up," Vasavada said.

One step in assessing whether Bonanza King can be drilled will be to check whether the individual plates of the outcrop are loose. During the drilling campaign, the team will also be analyzing possible routes to Mount Sharp and planning how to better understand how the rover's wheels interact with Martian sand ripples.

JPL, a division of Caltech, built Curiosity and manages Mars rover projects for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about Curiosity, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/msl

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/

You can follow the mission on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity

and on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA / JPL / Guy Webster.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

U.S. Commercial Cargo Ship Delivery Mission Ends as Canadarm2 Releases Cygnus

NASA / Orbital - Commercial Ressuply Services ORB-2 patch.

August 15, 2014

Orbital Sciences Cygnus commercial cargo craft completed a month-long delivery mission to the International Space Station Friday when it was released from the grips of the Canadarm2 robotic arm at 6:40 a.m. EDT. Cygnus is now orbiting on its own, separating from the station and heading for a deorbit and a fiery entry over the Pacific Ocean on Sunday.

ISS Cygnus CRS-2 Departs from International Space Station

Expedition 40 Flight Engineers Alexander Gerst and Reid Wiseman were inside the cupola remotely controlling the 58-foot Canadian robotic arm from the robotics workstation. Gerst, who was backed up by Wiseman, was in charge of releasing the resupply vehicle after ground controllers at Mission Control, Houston remotely maneuvered it into the release position following its unberthing from the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module.

Filled with trash, Cygnus completed its second commercial resupply mission for NASA. Orbital Sciences launched their spacecraft July 13 atop an Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at the Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia on a three-day journey to the orbital laboratory. At least eight more missions will be flown by Cygnus to the station through 2016.

Cygnus delivered nearly 3,300 pounds of science, supplies and spacewalking gear when it was captured and berthed to Harmony July 16. Aboard the spacecraft were items such as food, life support equipment, thermal control hardware and photography and video gear.

Experiment hardware was also on the Cygnus manifest ensuring the continuous international research aboard the orbital laboratory.

Image above: The Cygnus is in the grips of Canadarm2 moments before being released in Feb. 18, 2014 during Expedition 38.

A flock of nanosatellites was also shipped to the station aboard Cygnus for future release from the Kibo laboratory module’s airlock beginning next week. Individually known as “Dove” satellites, the group will collect continuous Earth imagery documenting natural and man-made conditions of the environment to improve disaster relief and increase agricultural yields.

Hardware upgrades were brought up to the station on the ship for a trio of tiny satellites that float inside the station known as SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites). Gear enabling studies for educators, students and private researchers was also delivered for the NanoRacks program in a partnership with NASA under the Space Act Agreement.

The Expedition 40 crewmembers hope to document Cygnus’ reentry Sunday as part of an engineering exercise to study the mechanics of the breakup of a space vehicle. Cygnus is scheduled to deorbit Sunday around 8:30 a.m. EDT.

For more information about Orbital's Cygnus resupply spacecraft, visit: https://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/MissionUpdates/Orb-2/

For more information about the International Space Station (ISS), visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Image, Video, Text, Credits: NASA / NASA TV.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

The correction of the orbit of the International Space Station

ISS - International Space Station patch.

08/14/2014

Orbit correction took place in the normal mode. According to the telemetry propulsion cargo vehicle ATV-5 was performed at 20 hours 58 minutes Moscow time. Duration of its operation was 469.4 seconds. As a result, ISS has received the increment speed of 1.1 m/sec., Orbit height increased by 2 km.

The average height of the ISS orbit is now 416.4 km.

ISS reboost by ESA's ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle)

Reboost performed in order to create the conditions for landing in a predetermined area of the vehicle crew manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-12M as part of the Russian Space Agency cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov, Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson. The crew will return to Earth September 11, 2014.

ROSCOSMOS Press Release: http://www.federalspace.ru/20840/

Image, Text, Credits: Roscosmos press service / ESA / Translation: Orbiter.ch Aerospace.

Cheers, Orbiter.ch