The winds of Mars

ESA - Mars Express Mission patch.

June 1, 2015

The effect of the winds of Mars

Here on Earth, we are used to the wind shaping our environment over time, forming smooth, sculpted rocks and rippling dunes. In this way, Mars is more similar to Earth than you might expect.

On the Red Planet, strong winds whip dust and sand from the surface into a frenzy, moving it across the planet at high speeds. These winds can hit 100 km/h, enough to create giant dust storms that settle across huge swathes of Mars, lasting for many days or even weeks.

As these winds travel they carve their surroundings, eroding and smoothing and gradually wearing away the planet’s surface features over millions of years.

Evidence of these processes can be seen in this image from ESA’s Mars Express orbiter. The image shows part of the Arabia Terra region, which is scattered with craters of varying sizes and ages. The craters in this image, caused by impacts in Mars’ past, all show different degrees of erosion. Some still have defined outer rims and clear features within them, while others are much smoother and featureless, almost seeming to run into one another or merge with their surroundings.

The largest crater in this image also has the steepest rim. With a diameter of some 70 km, this crater dominates the left, southern, side of the frame. At first glance, this image seems to show something amazing in this crater, and in one of its neighbours to the right: is this a hint of blue liquid water? No, it is an optical illusion caused by the image processing. The blue-hued patches lying within the ragged craters are actually dark sediments that have built up over time. Again, this is due to the winds, which carry dark, volcanic, basalt-rich deposits across the planet.

Mars Express

This colour image was taken by Mars Express’s High Resolution Stereo Camera on 19 November 2014, during orbit 13728. The image resolution is about 20 m per pixel.

For more information about Mars Express Mission, visit: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Mars_Express

Images, Text, Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

ROSCOSMOS: Named causes of the accident of Proton-M carrying MexSat-1

ROSCOSMOS logo.

May 31, 2015

On May 29, 2015, Roscosmos Interdepartmental Commission investigating the failed launch of  May 16, 2015 from Baikonur cosmodrome with Proton-M rocket carrying the satellite MexSat-1, reported the results of the investigations.

MexSat-1 satellite lost in the launch failure of  May 16, 2015

The commission members (representatives of the customer - Roscosmos and the Russian Defense Ministry, the head of branch institutes and industrial enterprises) conducted an analysis of the manufacturing process of the Proton-M and its components, the process of acceptance, transport, training and testing, as well as telemetry and rocket-trajectory information .

CONCLUSION: The causes of abnormal termination of the flight Proton-M, the rocket failed at T+545 seconds due to a loss of structural integrity of an interface attaching a steering engine turbopump to the rest of the structure, which also led to the fuel line damage, according to the official conclusion on the accident.

Failure is constructive

Proton Carrier Rocket U-500 Description (Click on the image for enlarge)

According to the agency, the head of Roscosmos Igor Komarov directed GKNPTs Khrunichev and its branches to develop a plan of measures aimed to resolve the issue, including:

- To replace the material making up the shaft of the turbopump rotor;
- To upgrade procedures for balancing the turbopump rotor;
- To upgrade the attachment of the steering engine turbopump to the framework of the main engine.

The agency also announced that the investigation had revealed a number of problems in the management of the quality control issues within the wider industry and promised to develop a plan of measures to resolve them within a month. The launch date for the next Proton mission would be announced in June 2015, Roscosmos said.

ROSCOSMOS Press Release: http://www.federalspace.ru/21511/

Images, Text, Credits: Press Service of the Russian Federal Space Agency/Rianovosti/Gunter Space Page/ROSCOSMOS/Orbiter.ch Aerospace.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Lifts off from China for Solar Impulse 2

SolarImpulse - Around the World patch.


May 30, 2015

The revolutionary aircraft Solar Impulse 2 took off from China in the night from Saturday to Sunday and headed to Hawaii, to the most dangerous stage of its world tour.

Image Above: The start of the 7th stage of the world tour of Solar Impulse 2, the longest with 8172 km, has again been postponed due to unsafe weather conditions. No new date has been set.

The Swiss pilot André Borschberg will take six days and nights in a row only to commands.

Powered by solar energy alone, the aircraft took off at 2:40 local time Sunday (8:40 p.m. Saturday in Switzerland), from the eastern city of Nanjing where he was confined since April 21. His departure had been postponed several times due to adverse weather, including last Tuesday because of cloud cover over Nanking and the Sea of ​​Japan.

Never Solar Impulse has 2 flew over an ocean or only stayed in the air more than 24 hours: that's how this Pacific crossing is a technological challenge and a historic aviation feat.

62 years old, André Borschberg will have to keep a distance of 8,500 kilometers. A performance that will intersect only brief sleep twenty minutes. His seat, he can not leave, is equipped with a toilet system.

Solar Imapulse 2 lift off from China to Hawaii

Journey without coffee

Every day, the driver will face the Himalayan altitudes around 28,000 feet (8400 meters) and 55 degree temperature variations in the unpressurized cabin seater Solar Impulse 2.

"How will I live in this tiny environment by climbing Everest every day, passing from winter to summer every day due to temperature changes, in just 20 minutes resting me every time?" he was asked in a recent interview with AFP. For this journey, no coffee provided: "It helps a few hours, but then it is negative," he said.

Different anticipated problems

In case of serious failure in flight, the Swiss will parachute into the ocean, hundreds of kilometers from help. No vessel may in effect to track the device, which will fly at a maximum speed of 90 km / h at low altitude and 140 km / h in the upper layers.

But the hypothesis of his own death leaves marble this engineer by training, "I do not see this as risky, because we have worked long on various issues," he confided. "If we lose an engine, you can fly with the other three, for example."

"In the worst case, we have a parachute, a life raft and knows how to use. Obviously, we hope we will not have to do it, "said the pilot.

Solar Impulse 2 takes off for 5-day non-stop flight across the Pacific

Promote solar energy

2 Solar Impulse, whose wings are covered with more than 17,000 photovoltaic cells, left on March 9 in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) for a world tour to promote the use of renewable energy, and in particular the solar energy. He then made a stop in Oman, India, Burma and China, alternately piloted by André Borschberg and his partner in this project, Swiss explorer Bertrand Piccard.

"This first ocean crossing will be unprecedented in the history of aviation. But it is a way (to promote solar energy), not an end in itself, "tweeted Mr Borschberg Saturday within hours of takeoff.

For more information and Following The flight live on the Internet, visit: http://www.solarimpulse.com/leg-7-from-Nanjing-to-Hawaii

Images, Video, Text, Credits: SolarImpulse/ATS/RT/Orbiter.ch Aerospace.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Major work to ready the LHC experiments for Run 2

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo.

29 May 2015

Next week, the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be back in action, taking data for the accelerator's second run. The detectors were shut down two years ago for maintenance and refurbishment in preparation for collisions at the higher energy of 13 teraelectronvolts (TeV).

Image above: A magnet is lowered through the ALICE cavern for work on the Large Hadron Collider during Long Shutdown 1 (Image: Maximilien Brice/CERN).

Long Shutdown 1 (LS1) saw hundreds of collaboration members working in and around the experiment caverns on improvements to the detectors. Four of these detectors – ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb – are enormous, sophisticated machines measuring up to 40 metres long and 20 metres long and made up of dozens of subdetectors, themselves composed of millions of sensitive sensors. Each subdetector is designed to determine the characteristics of one or more types of particle emerging from the particle collisions. These subdetectors include trackers, which reveal the paths of charged particles, and calorimeters, which measure the energy of some particles. All the data collected is grouped and analysed with a view to understanding what happened at the moment of collision. During the second run, up to one billion proton collisions could occur every second in the detectors. Most of the collisions do not yield interesting results and given the enormous quantities of data generated, it can’t all be logged. The trigger system therefore sorts the collisions, keeping just the most interesting events – several hundred per second. The data-acquisition system then records the data and sends it to the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid to be analysed by physicists. During the long shutdown, all these systems were verified and some were renovated or upgraded. Below is an overview of the main work projects that took place in the detector caverns ahead of the big restart.

ALICE

Image above: The installation of the di-jet calorimeter, which improves ALICE’s ability to detect electrons, positrons and photons (Image: Maximilien Brice/CERN).

This experiment, which studies quark-gluon plasma – the matter present in the first moments of the universe's existence – made improvements to most of its 19 subdetectors. One of these was the electromagnetic calorimeter, which measures the energy of the electrons, positrons and photons produced by the collisions. Its range of detection was extended with the addition of the new di-jet calorimeter. Modules were also added to other subdetectors, and tens of kilometres of cables were replaced as part of a complete overhaul of the electrical infrastructure. In terms of computing, ALICE doubled its data-logging capacity with improvements to the trigger and data-acquisition systems carried out by the collaboration’s IT experts.

Flying over ALICE

Video above: Timelapse showing work on ALICE during the long shutdown (Video: ALICE).

ATLAS

Image above: Installation of a new layer of pixels in the ATLAS tracker (Image: Claudia Marcelloni/CERN).

The ATLAS detector can now see even better, thanks to a fourth layer of pixels in its pixel tracker, the subdetector closest to the collisions and whose function is to reconstruct the particle trajectories. Improvements were also made to the muon detectors and calorimeters, as well as to the entire basic infrastructure (including the electrical power supply and the cooling systems). Sections of the beam pipe, in which the protons circulate and collide, were replaced to reduce the background noise in the detector. With new, more efficient trigger and data-acquisition systems, ATLAS is ready to log more data than before: it will be capable of recording a thousand events every second – more than double its capacity during Run 1. In addition, an improvement plan to upgrade the simulation, reconstruction and data-analysis software used by physicists to conduct their research was carried out.

Fast Forward to Physics

Video above: Timelapse showing work at the ATLAS experiment during Long Shutdown 1 (Video: ATLAS).

CMS

Image above: The installation of the new pixel luminosity telescope in the CMS detector (Image: Maximilien Brice/CERN).

The CMS collaboration carried out important work on its tracker so that it can function at lower temperatures: it was fitted with a new leak-tightness system and a refurbished cooling system. The central section of the beam tube, where the collisions take place, was replaced with a tube of a smaller diameter to allow a new pixel tracker to be installed during the next long shutdown. A brand-new subdetector, the pixel luminosity telescope, was installed on either side of the detector and will enhance the experiment’s ability to measure luminosity (a measure of the number of collisions produced in the experiment). New muon chambers were installed and the hadron calorimeter, which measures the energy of particles containing quarks, was fitted with upgraded photodetectors. Last but not least, the trigger system was improved and the software and computing systems underwent a significant overhaul to reduce the time needed to produce analysis datasets.

LHCb

Image above: The reinstallation of the beam pipe in the LHCb detector (Image: LHCb).

LHCb, the experiment that investigates beauty particles, added a HeRSChel detector along the beam line in order to identify rare processes in which particles are observed inside the detector but not along the beam line itself. The experiment’s beam pipe was also replaced, as was the pipe’s supporting structure, which is now lighter and more “transparent”. The experiments are constantly striving to achieve transparency as the detectors must detect without influencing the results, for example by intercepting particles that they're not supposed to stop or by altering the trajectories.

Note:

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

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

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

- More information about the LS1 in the experiments: http://press.web.cern.ch/backgrounders/lhc-season-2-major-work-experiments-run-2

- More information about the big questions that the LHC experiments are tackling, read “New frontiers” and follow the scientists at the forefront of particle physics:

https://press.web.cern.ch/backgrounders/lhc-season-2-new-frontiers-physics

http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2015/05/lhc-season-2-follow-people-frontiers-physics

Related links:

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

ALICE experiments: http://home.web.cern.ch/about/experiments/alice

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

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

LHCb experiments: http://home.web.cern.ch/about/experiments/lhcb

Worldwide LHC Computing Grid: http://home.web.cern.ch/about/computing/worldwide-lhc-computing-grid

For more information about the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), visit: http://home.web.cern.ch/

Images (mentioned), Videos (mentioned), Text, Credits: CERN/Corinne Pralavorio.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Blue Aurorae in Mars’ Sky Visible to the Naked Eye

NASA - MAVEN Mission logo / ESA - Mars Express Mission patch.

May 29, 2015

For the first time, an international team of scientists from NASA, the Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics of Grenoble (IPAG), the European Space Agency and Aalto University in Finland, have predicted that colorful, glowing aurorae can be seen by the naked eye on a terrestrial planet other than Earth — Mars.

Image above: The Planeterella sphere simulates a magnetized planet with an atmosphere of CO2 and bombarded by the solar wind. Blue aurorae develop according to its magnetic field configuration. Image Credits: D. Bernard/IPAG — CNRS.

Visible Martian aurorae seemed possible after the SPICAM imaging instrument on-board the ESA satellite Mars Express spotted aurorae from space in 2005. Those observations were confirmed in March 2015 by the NASA-led MAVEN mission, which completed 1,000 orbits around the red planet on April 6, 2015.

Through laboratory experiments and a physical numerical model developed at NASA and IPAG, the study shows that, on Mars, aurorae also occur in the visible range. The most intense color is deep blue. As on Earth, green and red colors are also present. Several times during a solar cycle, after intense solar eruptions, these lights are bright enough to be seen with the naked eye.

Aurorae occur when charged solar particles reach local magnetic field lines, where they enter the planetary atmosphere and excite its atoms and molecules. As they deactivate, the particles produce light emission. On Earth, aurorae are essentially green or red (excitation of atomic oxygen), but even blue-purple (excitation of ionized molecular nitrogen) can be seen.

At the beginning of Mars’ existence and up until 3.5 billion years ago, the red planet hosted a global magnetic field. Although this global field somehow shut down, local spots of increased magnetic fields, called crustal magnetic anomalies, still remain in Mars' surface. These anomalies are concentrated in the southern hemisphere, where aurorae are predicted to occur.

It is predicted that an astronaut walking on the red soil of the planet could look up to see the southern night sky glow blue, with red and green hues.

Image above: This is an artist interpretation of what aurorae may look like close to magnetic anomalies on Mars. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS and CSW/DB.

Perhaps NASA astronauts who plan to make their way towards the Mars’ surface by the 2030s aboard Orion will be the first to provide first-hand confirmation of the prediction. And to think, Mars’ southern lights could eventually become as much of a draw to aurorae admirers as Earth’s northern lights.

“Our planetary research gives us good insight on physics in the Martian atmosphere — how it evolved, why Mars’ mass is different than Earth’s,” said Guillaume Gronoff, a research scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center who helped to lead the study. “It helps us to better understand planetary atmosphere emissions, ultimately helping us to discover habitable planets.”

The Planeterella:

The Planeterella simulates aurorae using a magnetic field, charged particles and a sphere. For this study, they replaced the terrestrial atmospheric gas with CO2, the major component of the Martian atmosphere, and then created a discharge in a vacuum similar to Mars’ upper atmosphere.  There are seventeen Planeterellas worldwide. One is located at NASA Langley’s official Visitors Center — the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton, Va. — where Guillaume occasionally exhibits the simulation.

Related links:

ESA Mars Express mission:http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Mars_Express

NASA MAVEN mission: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/maven/main/index.html

Images, Text, Credits: NASA Langley Research Center/Denise Lineberry​/Samuel McDonald. Prediction of blue, red and green aurorae at Mars by J. Lilensten, D. Bernard, M. Barthélemy, G. Gronoff, C. Simon Wedlund, A. Opitz, Planetary and Space Science, May 2015, PII : S0032-0633(15)00130-0, DOI : 10.1016/j.pss.2015.04.015.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Hubble Peers into the Most Crowded Place in the Milky Way

ESA - Hubble Space Telescope patch.

May 29, 2015

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image presents the Arches Cluster, the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way. It is located about 25,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer), close to the heart of our galaxy, the Milky Way. It is, like its neighbor the Quintuplet Cluster, a fairly young astronomical object at between two and four million years old.

The Arches cluster is so dense that in a region with a radius equal to the distance between the sun and its nearest star there would be over 100,000 stars! At least 150 stars within the cluster are among the brightest ever discovered in the Milky Way. These stars are so bright and massive that they will burn their fuel within a short time (on a cosmological scale that means just a few million years). Then they will die in spectacular supernova explosions. Due to the short lifetime of the stars in the cluster the gas between the stars contains an unusually high amount of heavier elements, which were produced by earlier generations of stars.

Hubble over sunrise

Despite its brightness the Arches Cluster cannot be seen with the naked eye. The visible light from the cluster is completely obscured by gigantic clouds of dust in this region. To make the cluster visible astronomers have to use detectors which can collect light from the X-ray, infrared, and radio bands, as these wavelengths can pass through the dust clouds. This observation shows the Arches Cluster in the infrared and demonstrates the leap in Hubble’s performance since its 1999 image of same object.

For more images and information about Hubble Space Telescope, visit:
http://www.spacetelescope.org/ and http://hubblesite.org/

Image, Video, Credits: NASA/ESA, Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA).

Cheers, Orbiter.ch

Dawn Spirals Closer to Ceres, Returns a New View

NASA - Dawn Mission patch.

May 29, 2015

Image above: A new view of Ceres' surface shows finer details coming into view as NASA's Dawn spacecraft spirals down to increasingly lower orbits. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA.

A new view of Ceres, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 23, shows finer detail is becoming visible on the dwarf planet. The spacecraft snapped the image at a distance of 3,200 miles (5,100 kilometers) with a resolution of 1,600 feet (480 meters) per pixel. The image is part of a sequence taken for navigational purposes.

Image is available at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA19065

After transmitting these images to Earth on May 23, Dawn resumed ion-thrusting toward its second mapping orbit. On June 3, Dawn will enter this orbit and spend the rest of the month observing Ceres from 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers) above the surface. Each orbit during this time will be about three days, allowing the spacecraft to conduct an intensive study of Ceres.

Image above: What's the spot on World Ceres? Can you guess what's creating those unusual bright spots on Ceres? On March 6, NASA's Dawn spacecraft began orbiting Ceres, the largest body in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Even before the spacecraft arrived at the dwarf planet, images revealed mysterious bright spots that captivated scientists and observers alike. Until Dawn gets a closer look over the next few months, it's anyone's guess what those spots could be. So, go ahead! Cast your vote here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/dawn/world_ceres/ (Image Credit: NASA).

Dawn is the first mission to visit a dwarf planet, and the first to orbit two distinct solar system targets. It studied the protoplanet Vesta for 14 months in 2011 and 2012, and arrived at Ceres on March 6, 2015.

Animation above: Rotating Ceres and is mysterious two spots. Animation Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA.

Dawn's mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Italian Space Agency and Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team. For a complete list of mission participants, visit: http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission

More information about Dawn is available at the following sites: http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/dawn

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/JPL/Elizabeth Landau/Preston Dyches.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch