RED Epic Dragon Camera Captures Riveting Images on Space Station

ISS - Expedition 44 Mission patch.

July 28, 2015

RED 4K Camera Captures Riveting Footage of Unique Fluid Behavior in Space Laboratory

Video above: Astronauts on the International Space Station dissolved an effervescent tablet in a floating ball of water, and captured images using a camera capable of recording four times the resolution of normal high-definition cameras. This footage is one of the first of its kind on NASA's new 4K YouTube channel. The cameras are being evaluated for capturing science data and vehicle operations by engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Video Credit: NASA.

In October 2014 NASA delivered high-definition, 3-D footage of astronauts living and working on the International Space Station to the Internet, posting video of astronauts exploring water tension in microgravity. The same engineers who sent high-definition cameras and then 3-D cameras to the space station have now delivered a new camera capable of recording images with six times more detail than either of the previous cameras.

The Epic Dragon camera by RED, a digital cinema company, is capable of shooting at resolutions ranging from conventional HDTV up to 6K, specifically 6144 x 3160 pixels. By comparison, the average HD consumer television displays up to 1920 x 1080 pixels of resolution, and digital cinemas typically project 2,000 to 4,000.

Image above: View of RED video camera and display monitor floating between two Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs) in the airlock. Image Credit: NASA.

The fifth SpaceX cargo resupply mission delivered this camera to the orbiting laboratory in January 2015. The camera's ability to record at a high resolution as well as up to 300 frames per second made it the ideal recording device to capture dynamic events like vehicle operations near the station, such as docking and undocking. The higher resolution images and higher frame rate videos can reveal more information when used on science investigations, giving researchers a valuable new tool aboard the space station.

The ReelNASA YouTube channel posted views of the Earth and activities recorded from inside the station as an example of the detailed images this new camera can capture. The most recent RED camera footage shows astronauts having a little fun in the microgravity environment of space, while they also tested out the new camera that is ideal for science.

In the video, astronaut Terry Virts extracts a floating ball of water, into which he inserts an effervescent tablet to watch it dissolve and release gasses in mid-air. Rodney Grubbs, program manager for NASA's Imagery Experts Program at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, says the footage itself is dynamic for its subject matter, and the detailed, high-resolution makes it especially riveting.

Image above: Astronaut Terry Virts inserted an effervescent antacid tablet into a ball of water while crewmates filmed the reaction with the Red Epic Dragon camera. Image Credit: NASA.

"This is a huge leap in camera technology for spaceflight," Grubbs said. "These cameras have large sensors capable of very high resolution imaging at high frame rates. It is like having a high speed 35MM motion picture film camera, but it is compact, can use lenses we already have up there, and it is digital. No film to return to Earth."

The RED camera is the same model used to record theatrical releases such as The Hobbit trilogy and television programs. Ultra-HD televisions capable of receiving and displaying 4K transmissions are now sold in stores.

While the 4K resolutions are optimal for showing on movie screens, NASA video editors are working on space station footage for public viewing on YouTube. You will be able to watch high-resolution footage from inside and outside the orbiting laboratory right on your computer screen. You will need a screen capable of displaying 4K resolution for the full effect, but the imagery still trumps that of standard cameras. RED videos and pictures are shot at a higher fidelity and then down-converted, meaning much more information is captured in the images, which results in higher-quality playback, even if you don't have a 4K screen. 

Image above: A water bubble with the remnants of an antacid tablet reaction floats in front of astronaut Terry Virts’ eye. The reaction of putting the effervescent tablet into the water was filmed with the Red Epic Dragon Camera. Image Credit: NASA. 

NASA will post the 4K videos to the ReelNASA YouTube channel for users who have television screens or computer displays that can show footage of that resolution. They plan to post new videos every few weeks, bringing the spectacular views into your living room. Perhaps they may not be as good as the view from orbit, but pretty close.

Russian and U.S. Spacesuit Work Ahead of August Spacewalk

Two cosmonauts are getting ready for the first spacewalk from the International Space Station since March. Two NASA astronauts are also working to bring a U.S. spacesuit back to service.

Image above: Astronauts Scott Kelly (left) and Kjell Lindgren are in the Quest airlock servicing a U.S. spacesuit. Image Credit: NASA TV.

The three newest Expedition 44 crew members joined Commander Gennady Padalka during their afternoon for a familiarization session with emergency equipment inside the orbital lab. Having arrived just last week, new flight engineers Oleg Kononenko, Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yui are still getting used to their new home in space.

Padalka and One-Year crew member Mikhail Kornienko checked out Russian spacesuit gear ahead of an Aug. 10 spacewalk. The duo will replace external experiments and photograph the exterior condition of the space station’s Russian segment.

Lindgren and One-Year crew member Scott Kelly worked on a U.S. spacesuit replacing internal parts to return the unit to service. Kelly also continued more research for the Twins study comparing him to his Earth-bound twin brother and ex-astronaut Mark Kelly.

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

Images (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Kristine Rainey/Marshall Space Flight Center/Bill Hubscher.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

New Names and Insights at Ceres

NASA - Dawn Mission patch.

July 28, 2015

Ceres Topographic Globe Animation

Video above: This animation shows a color-coded map from NASA's Dawn mission revealing the highs and lows of topography on the surface of dwarf planet Ceres. The color scale extends 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) below the surface in purple to 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) above the surface in brown. The brightest features (those appearing nearly white) -- including the well-known bright spots within a crater in the northern hemisphere -- are simply reflective areas, and do not represent elevation.

Colorful new maps of Ceres, based on data from NASA's Dawn spacecraft, showcase a diverse topography, with height differences between crater bottoms and mountain peaks as great as 9 miles (15 kilometers).

Scientists continue to analyze the latest data from Dawn as the spacecraft makes its way to its third mapping orbit.

(Click on the image for enlarge)

Image above: This color-coded map from NASA's Dawn mission shows the highs and lows of topography on the surface of dwarf planet Ceres. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA.

"The craters we find on Ceres, in terms of their depth and diameter, are very similar to what we see on Dione and Tethys, two icy satellites of Saturn that are about the same size and density as Ceres. The features are pretty consistent with an ice-rich crust," said Dawn science team member Paul Schenk, a geologist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston.

Some of these craters and other features now have official names, inspired by spirits and deities relating to agriculture from a variety of cultures. The International Astronomical Union recently approved a batch of names for features on Ceres.

The newly labeled features include Occator, the mysterious crater containing Ceres' brightest spots, which has a diameter of about 60 miles (90 kilometers) and a depth of about 2 miles (4 kilometers). Occator is the name of the Roman agriculture deity of harrowing, a method of leveling soil.

Image above: This pair of images shows color-coded maps from NASA's Dawn mission, revealing the highs and lows of topography on the surface of dwarf planet Ceres. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA.

A smaller crater with bright material, previously labeled "Spot 1," is now identified as Haulani, after the Hawaiian plant goddess. Haulani has a diameter of about 20 miles (30 kilometers). Temperature data from Dawn's visible and infrared mapping spectrometer show that this crater seems to be colder than most of the territory around it.

Dantu crater, named after the Ghanaian god associated with the planting of corn, is about 75 miles (120 kilometers) across and 3 miles (5 kilometers) deep. A crater called Ezinu, after the Sumerian goddess of grain, is about the same size. Both are less than half the size of Kerwan, named after the Hopi spirit of sprouting maize, and Yalode, a crater named after the African Dahomey goddess worshipped by women at harvest rites.

"The impact craters Dantu and Ezinu are extremely deep, while the much larger impact basins Kerwan and Yalode exhibit much shallower depth, indicating increasing ice mobility with crater size and age," said Ralf Jaumann, a Dawn science team member at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Berlin. 

Almost directly south of Occator is Urvara, a crater named for the Indian and Iranian deity of plants and fields. Urvara, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) wide and 3 miles (6 kilometers) deep, has a prominent central pointy peak that is 2 miles (3 kilometers) high.

Image above: This image, from Dawn's visible and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIR), highlights a bright region on Ceres known as Haulani, named after the Hawaiian plant goddess. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/ASI/INAF.

Dawn is currently spiraling toward its third science orbit, 900 miles (less than 1,500 kilometers) above the surface, or three times closer to Ceres than its previous orbit.  The spacecraft will reach this orbit in mid-August and begin taking images and other data again.

Ceres, with a diameter of 584 miles (940 kilometers), is the largest object in the main asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter. This makes Ceres about 40 percent the size of Pluto, another dwarf planet, which NASA's New Horizons mission flew by earlier this month.

On March 6, 2015, Dawn made history as the first mission to reach a dwarf planet, and the first to orbit two distinct extraterrestrial targets. It conducted extensive observations of Vesta in 2011-2012.

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), Video, Text, Credits: NASA/Tony Greicius/JPL/Elizabeth Landau.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Six-Member Expedition 44 Crew Back to Work After Docking Activities

ISS - Expedition 44 Mission patch.

July 27, 2015

The International Space Station is at full strength now with six crew members from Japan, Russia and the United States. The newly-expanded orbital team got together today to review their roles and responsibilities in the event of an emergency in space.

Image above: NASA astronaut and new Expedition 44 crew member Kjell Lindgren works inside the Destiny laboratory module. Image Credit: NASA TV.

New station residents Oleg Kononenko, Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yui will be familiarizing themselves with their new home in space over the next few days. While they adapt to their new workplace the trio will also be getting up to speed with daily science research and orbital maintenance tasks.

International Space Station (ISS). Image Credit: NASA

Lindgren spent some time with the Veggie botany experiment before working on a spacesuit battery. Yui explored protein crystal growth with the potential to help scientists create advanced drugs on Earth then moved on to cargo transfers from the brand new Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft. Kononenko looked at the effect of space radiation on viruses, researched protein crystals and checked out Russian space hardware.

Related links:

Veggie botany experiment: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/863.html

Space radiation on viruses: http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/researches/biology/26.html

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

Images (mentioned), Text, Credit: NASA.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Bright Basin on Tethys

NASA - Cassini Mission to Saturn patch.

July 27, 2015

Bright Basin on Tethys

With the expanded range of colors visible to Cassini's cameras, differences in materials and their textures become apparent that are subtle or unseen in natural color views. Here, the giant impact basin Odysseus on Saturn's moon Tethys stands out brightly from the rest of the illuminated icy crescent. This distinct coloration may result from differences in either the composition or structure of the terrain exposed by the giant impact. Odysseus (280 miles, or 450 kilometers, across) is one of the largest impact craters on Saturn's icy moons, and may have significantly altered the geologic history of Tethys.

Tethys' dark side (at right) is faintly illuminated by reflected light from Saturn.

Images taken using ultraviolet, green and infrared spectral filters were combined to create this color view. North on Tethys (660 miles or 1,062 kilometers across) is up in this view.

The view was acquired on May 9, 2015 at a distance of approximately 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) from Tethys. Image scale is 1.1 mile (1.8 kilometers) per pixel.

Mother and Daughter

In Greek mythology, Dione was the daughter of Tethys, so we should perhaps not be surprised to see the two eponymous moons together.

In reality, the moons Tethys (660 miles or 1062 kilometers across) and Dione (698 miles or 1123 kilometers across) are not mother and daughter in any sense. They are perhaps more like sisters since scientists believe that they formed out of the same disk around an early Saturn.

Dione in this image is the upper moon, while Tethys is the lower.

This view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Dione. North on Dione is to the right. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 4, 2015.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.5 million miles (2.4 million kilometers) from Dione. Image scale is 9 miles (14 kilometers) per pixel.

Cassini spacecraft

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov or http://www.nasa.gov/cassini . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org and http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens

Images, Text, Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/Tony Greicius.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

The correction of the ISS orbit

ISS - International Space Station patch.

07/26/2015

July 26, 2015 at MCC Roscosmos was an exceptional correction of the orbit of the International Space Station with the purpose of evasion of debris - a fragment of the destruction of an USA spacecraft.

According to the service ballistics navigation support (MCC), using the engines of TGK Progress M-26M were started at 6 o'clock 48 minutes (MSK) and worked for 252 seconds, providing impetus to 0.5 m/s to raise the orbit.

ISS re-boost by Progress

As a result of the maneuver the average height of flight of the station increased by 0.9 km and amounted to 402.21 km.

Design parameters of the orbit as a result of the correction:

The minimum height above the Earth's surface - 402.8 km.

The maximum height above the Earth's surface - 420.07 km.

The orbital period - 92.55 min.

Inclination - 51.66 deg.

ROSCOSMOS Press Release: http://www.federalspace.ru/21610/

Image, Text, Credits: Press Service of the Russian Federal Space Agency/NASA/Orbiter.ch Aerospace.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Born-again planetary nebula

ESA - XMM-Newton Mission patch.

July 27, 2015

Beneath the vivid hues of this eye-shaped cloud, named Abell 78, a tale of stellar life and death is unfolding. At the centre of the nebula, a dying star – not unlike our Sun – which shed its outer layers on its way to oblivion has, for a brief period of time, come back to echo its past glory.

Releasing their outer shells is the usual fate for any star with a mass of 0.8–8 times that of the Sun. Having exhausted the nuclear fuel in their cores after burning for billions of years, these stars collapse to become dense, hot white dwarf stars. Around them, the ejected material strikes the ambient gas and dust, creating beautiful clouds known as ‘planetary nebulas’. This curious name was adopted by 18th-century astronomers who discovered these ‘puffing’ stars and thought their round shape similar to that of planets.

However, the resurgence to life seen in this image is an exceptional event for a planetary nebula. Only a handful of such born-again stars have been discovered, and here the intricate shape of the cloud’s glowing material gives away its turbulent history.

Although nuclear burning of hydrogen and helium had ceased in the core of the dying star, causing it to collapse under its own weight and its envelope to expand into a bubble, some of the star’s outer layers became so dense that fusion of helium resumed there.

The renewed nuclear activity triggered another, much faster wind, blowing more material away. The interplay between old and new outflows has shaped the cloud’s complex structure, including the radial filaments that can be seen streaming from the collapsing star at the centre.

The interaction between slow and fast winds gusting in the environment of Abell 78 heated the gas to over a million degrees, making it shine brightly in X-rays. Astronomers detected this hot gas with ESA’s XMM-Newton space observatory, revealing striking similarities with another born-again planetary nebula, Abell 30.

XMM-Newton space observatory

This three-colour image combines X-ray data collected in 2013 by XMM-Newton (blue) with optical observations obtained using two special filters that reveal the glow of oxygen (green) and helium (red). The optical data were gathered in 2014 with the Andalusian Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera at the Nordic Optical Telescope on La Palma, in the Canary Islands. A study of the X-ray emission from Abell 78 is presented in a paper by J.A. Toalá et al. 2015.

For more information about XMM-Newton mission, visit: http://sci.esa.int/xmm-newton/ and http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/XMM-Newton_overview

Images, Text, Credits: ESA/XMM-Newton/J.A. Toalá et al. 2015.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Searching for underground energy sources from space

ESA - GOCE Mission logo.

27 July 2015

Data from ESA’s GOCE gravity satellite are being used to improve models of Earth’s geology, indicating the potential locations of subsurface energy sources.

The satellite known as the ‘Ferrari of space’ has measured Earth’s gravity with unrivalled precision, thanks to its extraordinarily low orbit about 255 km high – about 500 km lower than most Earth observation satellites.

Geophysics with GOCE

At the end of 2012, low fuel consumption allowed operators to extend the mission’s life and start to lower the satellite a further 31 km for even more accurate measurements. This was at the very limit of its capability but maximised the return for science.

Although GOCE’s mission ended in October 2013, the gravity data from this super-low orbit has improved our understanding of Earth’s interior, including identifying areas where oil and gas – the primary energy source for today’s civilisations – might be present.

3D models of Earth’s underground are traditionally based on information acquired on the ground. Gravity data from the GOCE satellite, however, provide homogeneous coverage in high resolution, which is being used to improve and validate models based on traditional datasets.

Models based on GOCE data show subsurface density and its vertical and lateral variability, which provides insight into varying geological compositions and temperatures. Estimating the structure and thermal state of Earth’s crust provides clues into the heat of shallower sedimentary rocks, and thus the potential location of oil and gas accumulations.

Subsurface areas with temperatures ranging over 60–200ºC indicate the maturity of the rock and, therefore, the likelihood of the presence of oil and gas.

Pinpointing hyrodcarbon maturity

“Using GOCE data for improving our understanding of Earth’s composition is still in an early phase, and more local geophysical surveys need to be conducted to validate the models,” said Jörg Ebbing from Germany’s University of Kiel and one of the experts in the GOCE+ Geoexplore project, which carried out the study.

Another expert working on the study, Rader Abdul Fattah from the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), continued: “These early results already show how spaceborne technologies can be used to improve our understanding of the various geological properties of deeply buried sediments – from 5 km to 10 km deep – and therefore identify the potential of untapped subsurface energy resources.

“This is especially useful for remote areas that are difficult, expensive and time-consuming to explore.”

GOCE

 While neither oil or gas reservoirs can be found directly with GOCE, the analysis can guide researchers in identifying areas where the geological conditions appear promising for further ground exploration.

GOCE’s mission ended in October 2013 when it ran out of fuel and subsequently reentered Earth’s atmosphere. But its wealth of data continues to be exploited to improve our understanding of Earth’s interior, as well as ocean circulation, sea level and ice dynamics.

The GOCE+ Geoexplore project is funded by ESA’s Support To Science Element.

To promote the use of GOCE data for geophysical studies, the GOCE+ Geoexplore team has generated a set of global gravity gradients datasets at 225 km and 255 km altitudes that can be freely accessed through this link: https://earth.esa.int/web/guest/missions/esa-operational-eo-missions/goce/geoexplore

Related links:

Access GOCE data: http://earth.esa.int/GOCE/

GOCE+ GeoExplore project: http://goce4interior.dgfi.tum.de/

Gravity gradients datasets: https://earth.esa.int/web/guest/missions/esa-operational-eo-missions/goce/geoexplore

DGFI-TUM: http://www.dgfi.tum.de/en/

University of Kiel: http://www.uni-kiel.de/index-e.shtml

TNO: http://www.tno.nl/index.cfm?Taal=2

For more information about GOCE mission, visit: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/GOCE

Images, Video, Text, Credits: ESA/Planetary Visions/AOES Medialab.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch