For Moratorium on Sending Commands to Mars, Blame the Sun

JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory logo.

July 15, 2017

This month, movements of the planets will put Mars almost directly behind the sun, from Earth's perspective, causing curtailed communications between Earth and Mars.

NASA will refrain from sending commands to America's three Mars orbiters and two Mars rovers during the period from July 22 to Aug. 1.

Geometry of Mars Solar Conjunction

Image above: This diagram illustrates the positions of Mars, Earth and the sun during a period that occurs approximately every 26 months, when Mars passes almost directly behind the sun from Earth's perspective. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

"Out of caution, we won't talk to our Mars assets during that period because we expect significant degradation in the communication link, and we don't want to take a chance that one of our spacecraft would act on a corrupted command," said Chad Edwards, manager of the Mars Relay Network Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

Data will keep coming from Mars to Earth, although loss or corruption of some bits is anticipated and the data will be retransmitted later. "We will continue to receive telemetry, so we will have information every day about the status of the vehicles," Edwards said.

As seen from Earth, Mars periodically passes near the sun about every 26 months, an arrangement called "Mars solar conjunction." During most solar conjunctions, including this year's, Mars does not go directly behind the sun.

Viewers using proper eye protection to watch the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21 will gain a visible lesson in why Mars doesn't need to be directly behind the sun for communications between Earth and Mars to be degraded. The sun's corona, which always extends far from the surface of the sun, becomes visible during total eclipses. It consists of hot, ionized gas, which can interfere with radio waves that pass through it.

To prevent the possibility of the ionized gas near the sun corrupting a command radioed to a spacecraft at Mars, NASA avoids transmitting for a period including several days before and after Mars gets closest to passing behind the sun.

Teams that operate Mars orbiters and rovers have been preparing for weeks in anticipation of the moratorium that will begin on July 22.

"The vehicles will stay active, carrying out commands sent in advance," said Mars Program Chief Engineer Hoppy Price, of JPL. "Orbiters will be making their science observations and transmitting data. The rovers won't be driving, but observations and measurements will continue."

The rover teams are determining the most useful sites for the rovers Curiosity and Opportunity to remain productive during the solar-conjunction period.

All of NASA's active Mars missions have experience from at least one previous solar conjunction. This will be the eighth solar conjunction period for the Mars Odyssey orbiter, the seventh for the Opportunity rover, the sixth for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the third for the Curiosity rover and the second for the MAVEN orbiter.

Edwards said, "All of these spacecraft are now veterans of conjunction. We know what to expect."

What Happens When the Sun Blocks our Signal?

Video above: How can you communicate with Mars spacecraft when the Sun is in the way? Learn more about 'solar conjunction' in this 60-second video. Video Credits: NASA./JPL.

NASA's five current Mars missions, plus Mars missions scheduled for launches in 2018 and 2020, are part of ambitious robotic exploration to understand Mars, helping to lead the way for sending humans to Mars in the 2030s.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the MAVEN project for the principal investigator at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the Odyssey, Opportunity, Reconnaissance Orbiter, and Curiosity projects, and NASA's Mars Exploration Program, for the Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built all three NASA Mars orbiters. For more about NASA's Mars Exploration Program, visit:

https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov

https://www.nasa.gov/mars

Image (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Laurie Cantillo/Dwayne Brown/JPL/Guy Webster.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Eagle eye view of CERN

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo.

July 14, 2017

On board a racing drone for a tour of CERN

Video Credits: Christophe Madsen - Mike Struik/CERN.

Get a unique perspective of CERN by following this drone’s journey around the laboratory as it flies over the iconic Globe exhibition hall, the site of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, through the magnet assembly facility, around the computing centre and across the border between France and Switzerland to the ALICE and CMS experiment, and much more.

Image above: A racing drone view of Globe exhibition hall at CERN (image capture from the video). Image Credits: Christophe Madsen - Mike Struik/CERN.

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.

Related links:

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

ATLAS experiment: https://home.cern/about/experiments/atlas

ALICE expetiment: https://home.cern/about/experiments/alice

CMS experiment: https://home.cern/about/experiments/cms

Computing centre: http://home.cern/about/computing

For more information about European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Visit: http://home.cern/

Image (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: CERN/Corinne Pralavorio.

Best regards from neighbor of CERN (one sees my building in the video), Orbiter.ch

Hubble Spots a Barred Lynx Spiral

NASA - Hubble Space Telescope patch.

July 14, 2017

Discovered by British astronomer William Herschel over 200 years ago, NGC 2500 lies about 30 million light-years away in the northern constellation of Lynx. As this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows, NGC 2500 is a particular kind of spiral galaxy known as a barred spiral, its wispy arms swirling out from a bright, elongated core.

Barred spirals are actually more common than was once thought. Around two-thirds of all spiral galaxies — including the Milky Way — exhibit these straight bars cutting through their centers. These cosmic structures act as glowing nurseries for newborn stars, and funnel material towards the active core of a galaxy. NGC 2500 is still actively forming new stars, although this process appears to be occurring very unevenly. The upper half of the galaxy — where the spiral arms are slightly better defined — hosts many more star-forming regions than the lower half, as indicated by the bright, dotted islands of light.

There is another similarity between NGC 2500 and our home galaxy. Together with Andromeda, Triangulum and many smaller natural satellites, the Milky Way is part of the Local Group of galaxies, a gathering of over 50 galaxies all loosely held together by gravity. NGC 2500 forms a similar group with some of its nearby neighbors, including NGC 2541, NGC 2552, NGC 2537 and the bright, Andromeda-like spiral NGC 2481 (known collectively as the NGC 2841 group).

Hubble Space Telescope

For images and more information about Hubble, visit:

http://hubblesite.org/
http://www.nasa.gov/hubble
http://www.spacetelescope.org/

Image, Animation, Text, Credits: ESA/Hubble/NASA/Sara Blumberg.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

New Horizons Unveils New Maps and videos of Pluto, Charon on Flyby Anniversary

NASA - New Horizons Mission logo.

July 14, 2017

Image above: Artist's impression of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, en route to a January 2019 encounter with Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69. Image Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI.

On July 14, 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft made its historic flight through the Pluto system – providing the first close-up images of Pluto and its moons and collecting other data that has transformed our understanding of these mysterious worlds on the solar system’s outer frontier.

Scientists are still analyzing and uncovering data that New Horizons recorded and sent home after the encounter. On the two-year anniversary of the flyby, the team is unveiling a set of  detailed, high-quality global maps of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon.

- New Horizons project science gallery for Pluto: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Science-Photos/search.php?form_keywords=42
- New Horizons project science gallery for Charon: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Science-Photos/search.php?form_keywords=121

“The complexity of the Pluto system — from its geology to its satellite system to its atmosphere— has been beyond our wildest imagination,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “Everywhere we turn are new mysteries. These new maps from the landmark exploration of Pluto by NASA’s New Horizons mission in 2015 will help unravel these mysteries and are for everyone to enjoy.”

Images above: Global mosaics of Pluto and Charon projected at 300 meters (985 feet) per pixel have been assembled from most of the highest resolution images obtained by the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) onboard New Horizons. Transparent, colorized stereo topography data generated for the encounter hemispheres of Pluto and Charon have been overlain on the mosaics. Terrain south of about 30°S on Pluto and Charon was in darkness leading up to and during the flyby, so is shown in black. “S” and “T” respectively indicate Sputnik Planitia and Tartarus Dorsa on Pluto, and “C” indicates Caleuche Chasma on Charon. All feature names on Pluto and Charon are informal. Images Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/LPI.

NASA Video Soars over Pluto’s Majestic Mountains and Icy Plains

New Horizons Flyover of Pluto

Video Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/Paul Schenk and John Blackwell, Lunar and Planetary Institute.

In July 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft sent home the first close-up pictures of Pluto and its moons – amazing imagery that inspired many to wonder what a flight over the distant worlds’ icy terrain might be like.

Wonder no more. Using actual New Horizons data and digital elevation models of Pluto and its largest moon Charon, mission scientists have created flyover movies that offer spectacular new perspectives of the many unusual features that were discovered and which have reshaped our views of the Pluto system – from a vantage point even closer than the spacecraft itself.

This dramatic Pluto flyover begins over the highlands to the southwest of the great expanse of nitrogen ice plain informally named Sputnik Planitia. The viewer first passes over the western margin of Sputnik, where it borders the dark, cratered terrain of Cthulhu Macula, with the blocky mountain ranges located within the plains seen on the right. The tour moves north past the rugged and fractured highlands of Voyager Terra and then turns southward over Pioneer Terra -- which exhibits deep and wide pits -- before concluding over the bladed terrain of Tartarus Dorsa in the far east of the encounter hemisphere.

New Horizons Flyover of Charon

Video Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/Paul Schenk and John Blackwell, Lunar and Planetary Institute.

The equally exciting flight over Charon begins high over the hemisphere New Horizons saw on its closest approach, then descends over the deep, wide canyon of Serenity Chasma. The view moves north, passing over Dorothy Gale crater and the dark polar hood of Mordor Macula. The flight then turns south, covering the northern terrain of Oz Terra before ending over the relatively flat equatorial plains of Vulcan Planum and the “moated mountains” of Clarke Montes.

The topographic relief is exaggerated by a factor of two to three times in these movies to emphasize topography; the surface colors of Pluto and Charon also have been enhanced to bring out detail.

Digital mapping and rendering were performed by Paul Schenk and John Blackwell of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. All feature names in the Pluto system are informal.

New Horizons continues to speed along toward its next target – the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69.

New Horizons: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Videos (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Bill Keeter.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

ROSCOSMOS: Soyuz-2.1А Launch Vehicle with KANOPUS-V-IK Satellite Successfully Lifts Off From Baikonur

ROSCOSMOS logo.

July 14, 2017

Soyuz-2.1a LV with Kanopus-V-IK launch

On July14, 2017 at 09:36 Moscow time, Soyuz-2.1a lifted off from Site 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch mission is to deliver an Earth observation Kanopus-V-IK satellite and 72 smallsats piggybacked under the federal and commercial contracts of Glavkosmos to their target orbits.

Soyuz-2.1a LV with Kanopus-V-IK launch

The spacecraft launched under the Russian federal contracts are as follows:

- MKA-N 1 6U-CubeSat (Russia, Dauria Aerospace in the order of Roscosmos);
- MKA-N 2 6U-CubeSat (Russia, Dauria Aerospace in the order of Roscosmos).

The spacecraft launched under Glavkosmos contracts are as follows:

CubeSats (illustration)

- Flying Laptop microsatellite (Germany);
- TechnoSat microsatellite (Germany);
- WNISAT-1R microsatellite (Japan);
- NorSat-1 microsatellite (Norway/Canada);
- NorSat-2 microsatellite (Norway/Canada);
- 48 Dove 3U-CubeSats as part of Flock-2k (USA);
- 3 CICERO 6U-CubeSats (USA);
- 2 Corvus-BC 6U-CubeSats (USA);
- 8 LEMUR 3U-CubeSats (USA);
- NanoACE 3U-CubeSat (USA);
- Mayak 3U-CubeSat (the Moscow Polytechnic University);
- Iskra-MAI-85 3U-CubeSat (the Moscow Aviation Institute);
- Ekvador UTE-YuZGU 1U-CubeSat (the South-Western State University).

72 smallsats make the mission setting a record in a number of spacecraft to be injected into several target orbits among smallsats launches ever.

Soyuz-2.1a LV with Kanopus-V-IK launch

The flight timeline is as follows:
    09:36:49 – launch vehicle lift-off;
    09:38:46 – 1st stage separation;
    09:41:36 – 2nd stage separation;
    09:41:38 – fairing jettison;
    09:45:37 – head module separation;
    09:45:42 – 09:52:18 – Fregat upper stage flight to a transfer orbit;
    10:35:01 – 10:36:27 – Fregat upper stage flight to the Kanopus-V-IK separation orbit;
    10:38:07 – Kanopus-V-IK separation (orbit i=97.44°; H = 522.5km; h = 478.6km);
    11:13:29 – 11:14:35 – Fregat upper stage flight to the second transfer orbit;
    11:58:29 – 11:59:35 – Fregat upper stage flight to the separation orbit of a group of smallsats;
    12:01:43 – 12:05:03 – Phase 1. Separation of 5 smallsats (orbits i=97.61°; H = 601.5-600.1km; h = 600.0-590.1km);
    12:10:03 – 12:26:43 – Phase 2. Separation of 19 smallsats (orbits i=97.62-97.61°; H = 601.0-606.9km; h = 580.1-587.4km);
    12:51:49 – 12:53:15 – Fregat upper stage flight to the third transfer orbit;
    13:34:39 – 13:35:51 – Fregat upper stage flight to the separation orbit of a group of smallsats;
    17:18:23 – 17:41:17 – Separation of 48 smallsats (orbits i=97.00-97.01°; H = 485.0-477.4km; h = 482.2-450.5km);
    17:51:49 – 17:53:45 – Fregat upper stage flight to reentry orbit;
    ~18:18:49 – Fregat upper stage reentry (altitude – 100km), sinking in the Indian Ocean.

Kanopus-V-IK satellite

Soyuz-2.1a Launch Vehicle

Soyuz-2 launcher is based on the Soyuz-U series. Soyuz-2 features advanced engines and up-to-date control and telemetry systems that significantly enhance the LV technical and operational specifications. The upgrading was done in two phases. At phase 1а, a standardized Soyuz-2.1a was born to accommodate various upper composites with fairings of up to 4.11m in diameter. The LV is capable to orbit a payload with improved accuracy; the upgraded control system and stage I-II engines have allowed for increasing of the payload mass to be lofted to the low Earth orbit. At phase 1b resulted in Soyuz-2.1b, stage III was refitted with a state-of-the-art 14D23 (RD-0124) engine which made its performance even better.

The prime LV designer is Progress Space Rocket Center (the city of Samara). Depending on a mission, Soyuz-2 launcher can be configured with the Fregat upper stage.

Soyuz-2 key features:

- a new generation of a legendary carrier rocket;
- environmentally-friendly fuel of kerosene and liquid oxygen;
- increased performance and a state-of-the-art control system providing new orbiting capabilities.

Fregat Upper Stage

A standard Fregat upper stage was designed by Lavochkin Association to complement various launchers in order to put satellites in different orbits. It is used in Soyuz rockets. A standard Fregat upper stage equipped with extra fuel tanks or drop-off tanks evolved to highly efficient upper stage modifications: Fregat-MT and Fregat-SB.

Fregat key features:

- independence – the upper stage orbits a payload without uplink control;
- the logic of upper stage operation provides for responding to potential anomalies;
- satellite navigation instruments in the control loop improve spacecraft insertion accuracy;
- lengthy active life (up to 2 days);
- operations at Baikonur, Plesetsk, the Guiana Space Center and, in the future, at Vostochny.

For more information, visit: http://en.roscosmos.ru/

Images, Video, Text, Credit: ROSCOSMOS/Günter Space Page.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

New Science Gear Installed, Cargo Craft Packed for Disposal

ISS - Expedition 52 Mission patch.

July 13, 2017

Expedition 52 worked throughout Thursday installing new science gear to improve the research capabilities of the International Space Station. A cargo craft is also being loaded with trash and obsolete gear for disposal next week.

New network connections were installed on the main window of the Destiny lab module today. Flight Engineer Jack Fischer installed new equipment in the Window Observational Research Facility, or WORF, which hosts a variety of Earth sensing payloads to study the planet through a large window on the bottom of the Destiny Laboratory.

Image above: Flight Engineer Jack Fischer evaluates scientific hardware aboard the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA.

Peggy Whitson of NASA installed a carbon dioxide controller inside an incubator. The incubator is part of the Space Automated Bioproduct Lab (SABL) located in Destiny. SABL enables space research that provides insights benefiting pharmaceutical, biotechnology and agricultural industries.

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin is getting the Russian Progress 66 (66P) cargo craft ready to take out the trash next week. The 66P will undock July 20 from the Pirs docking compartment packed with old and discarded items and burn up harmlessly over the Pacific Ocean.

Related links:

Window Observational Research Facility (WORF): https://worf.msfc.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

Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Mars and the Amazing Technicolor Ejecta Blanket & 'Elementary, My Dear Deposit...'

NASA - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) logo.

July 13, 2017

Mars and the Amazing Technicolor Ejecta Blanket

 
This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the exposed bedrock of an ejecta blanket of an unnamed crater in the Mare Serpentis region of Mars. Ejecta, when exposed, are truly an eye-opening feature, as they reveal the sometimes exotic subsurface, and materials created by impacts (close-up view). This ejecta shares similarities to others found elsewhere on Mars, which are of particular scientific interest for the extent of exposure and diverse colors. (For example, the Hargraves Crater ejecta, in the Nili Fossae trough region, was once considered as a candidate landing site for the next NASA Mars rover 2020.)

The colors observed in this picture represent different rocks and minerals, now exposed on the surface. Blue in HiRISE infrared color images generally depicts iron-rich minerals, like olivine and pyroxene. Lighter colors, such as yellow, indicate the presence of altered rocks.

The possible sources of the ejecta is most likely from two unnamed craters. How do we determine which crater deposited the ejecta?

A full-scale image shows numerous linear features that are observed trending in an east-west direction. These linear features indicate the flow direction of the ejecta from its unnamed host crater. Therefore, if we follow them, we find that they emanate from the bottom of the two unnamed craters. If the ejecta had originated from the top crater, then we would expect the linear features at the location of our picture to trend northwest to southeast.

The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 50.8 centimeters (20 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 153 centimeters (60.2 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.

'Elementary, My Dear Deposit...' 

In this image, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) observes an impact crater with associated bright deposits that at first glance give the appearance of seasonal frost or ice accumulations. MRO has an onboard spectrometer called CRISM that can distinguish between ices and other minerals. Unfortunately, there is currently no coverage of this particular spot. However, it can be deduced through several lines of evidence that this is, in fact, not ice.

Just like Earth, Mars experiences seasons that change as the planet orbits the Sun. Seasonal changes are most apparent at the higher latitudes. As these regions in each hemisphere enter their respective summer seasons, the Sun rises higher in the Martian sky causing frost and ice to sublimate, and illuminate more features across the landscape. As the high latitudes of each hemisphere move toward their respective winters, the days (called "sols") grow shorter and the sun hangs low on the horizon, giving rise to prolonged periods of cold, darkness, and frost accumulation.

First, it should be noted that at the time this image was taken, the Southern hemisphere is at the end of the summer season, so any frost or ice deposits have long since sublimated away. Second, numerous HiRISE images of seasonal targets show that ice accumulates on pole-facing slopes. The deposits in question are situated on a slope that faces the equator, and would not accumulate deposits of frost. Thus, it can be concluded that these exposures are light-toned mineral deposits.

The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 25.5 centimeters (10 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning); objects on the order of 77 centimeters (30.3 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/main/index.html

Images, Text, Credits: NASA/Martin Perez/Tony Greicius/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch