NASA Measures Cyclone Chapala's Heavy Rains Across Arabian Sea to Yemen

JAXA / NASA - Global Precipitation Measurement mission (GPM) logo.

Nov. 4, 2015

Chapala (Northern Indian Ocean)

The Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core satellite added up the totals as Cyclone Chapala dropped a lot of rain moving across the Arabian Sea to landfall in Yemen.

Image above: From Oct. 28 to Nov. 3, IMERG showed rainfall amounts between 5 to 15 inches (yellow and dark red, respectively) over south central Yemen and along the coast to the right of where Chapala made landfall. (Storm track in white) Areas in eastern Yemen appear to have received at least 3 inches of rain (shown in green). The highest total over Yemen was 398 mm (~16 inches). Image Credits: NASA/JAXA, Hal Pierce.

Cyclone Chapala formed into a rare but powerful Category 4 cyclone in the Arabian Sea with winds at one time estimated at 155 mph by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) back on Oct. 30. Chapala made its initial landfall along the south coast of Yemen on November 3 west of the port city of Mukulla at around 09:00 UTC as a Category 1 cyclone with maximum sustained winds estimated at 75 mph by JTWC, making it the first Category 1 cyclone on record to strike Yemen.  The last cyclone to strike the Arabian Peninsula was Cyclone Phet, which hit eastern Oman back in 2010.

In addition to strong gusty winds Chapala brought heavy rains and flooding to a country that is predominantly dry desert. Although on average the western highlands receive between 10 and 15 inches of rain per year, much of eastern Yemen receives less and 5 inches per year with coastal areas often getting less than 2 inches per year.

The Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM or IMERG is used to make estimates of precipitation from a combination of passive microwave sensors, including the GMI microwave sensor onboard the GPM satellite, and geostationary IR (infrared) data.

GPM Video of Cyclone Chapala

Video above: From Oct. 28 to Nov. 3, IMERG showed rainfall amounts between 5 to 15 inches (yellow and dark red, respectively) over south central Yemen and along the coast to the right of where Chapala made landfall. (Storm track in white) Areas in eastern Yemen appear to have received at least 3 inches of rain (shown in green). The highest total over Yemen was 398 mm (~16 inches). IMERG rainfall totals for Socotra are between 12 (dark red) and 20 (shown in purple) inches of rain. Video Credits: NASA/JAXA, Hal Pierce.

At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the data was used to create an image that showed IMERG rainfall estimates from Oct. 28 at 18:00 UTC to Nov. 3 at 08:30 UTC for Yemen, the Gulf of Aden and the surrounding region in association with Cyclone Chapala.

IMERG showed rainfall amounts between 5 to 15 inches over south central Yemen and along the coast to the right of where Chapala made landfall. Areas in eastern Yemen appear to have received at least 3 inches of rain. The highest total over Yemen was 398 mm (~16 inches).

Global Precipitation Measurement mission (GPM) satellite. Image Credits: JAXA/NASA

Most of these totals are the equivalent of a year's worth of precipitation or more.  So far at least 3 persons are reported to have died and 200 injured as a result of the storm on the island of Socotra located about 150 miles east of the Horn of Africa.  IMERG rainfall totals for Socotra are between 12 and 20 inches of rain.

GPM is a joint missions between NASA and the Japanese space agency JAXA.

Related article:

NASA Sees First Land-falling Tropical Cyclone in Yemen:
http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2015/11/nasa-sees-first-land-falling-tropical.html

For more information about Global Precipitation Measurement mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GPM/main/ and http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/GPM/index_e.htm

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: SSAI/NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Steve Lang.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Be an Astronaut: NASA Seeks Explorers for Future Space Missions

NASA logo / NASA - Extra Vehicular Activities (EVA) patch.

Nov. 4, 2015

In anticipation of returning human spaceflight launches to American soil, and in preparation for the agency’s journey to Mars, NASA announced it will soon begin accepting applications for the next class of astronaut candidates. With more human spacecraft in development in the United States today than at any other time in history, future astronauts will launch once again from the Space Coast of Florida on American-made commercial spacecraft, and carry out deep-space exploration missions that will advance a future human mission to Mars.

NASA Astronaut

The agency will accept applications from Dec. 14 through mid-February and expects to announce candidates selected in mid-2017. Applications for consideration as a NASA Astronaut will be accepted at: http://www.usajobs.gov

The next class of astronauts may fly on any of four different U.S. vessels during their careers: the International Space Station, two commercial crew spacecraft currently in development by U.S. companies, and NASA’s Orion deep-space exploration vehicle.

From pilots and engineers, to scientists and medical doctors, NASA selects qualified astronaut candidates from a diverse pool of U.S. citizens with a wide variety of backgrounds.

“This next group of American space explorers will inspire the Mars generation to reach for new heights, and help us realize the goal of putting boot prints on the Red Planet,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “Those selected for this service will fly on U.S. made spacecraft from American soil, advance critical science and research aboard the International Space Station, and help push the boundaries of technology in the proving ground of deep space.”

The space agency is guiding an unprecedented transition to commercial spacecraft for crew and cargo transport to the space station. Flights in Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon will facilitate adding a seventh crew member to each station mission, effectively doubling the amount of time astronauts will be able to devote to research in space.

Astronaut Recruitment

Future station crew members will continue the vital work advanced during the last 15 years of continuous human habitation aboard the orbiting laboratory, expanding scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies. This work will include building on the regular six-month missions and this year's one-year mission, currently underway aboard the station, which is striving for research breakthroughs not possible on Earth that will enable long-duration human and robotic exploration into deep space.

In addition, NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, now in development, will launch astronauts on missions to the proving ground of lunar orbit where NASA will learn to conduct complex operations in a deep space environment before moving on to longer duration missions on its journey to Mars.

“This is an exciting time to be a part of America’s human space flight program,” said Brian Kelly, director of Flight Operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “NASA has taken the next step in the evolution of our nation’s human spaceflight program – and our U.S. astronauts will be at the forefront of these new and challenging space flight missions. We encourage all qualified applicants to learn more about the opportunities for astronauts at NASA and apply to join our flight operations team.”

To date, NASA has selected more than 300 astronauts to fly on its increasingly challenging missions to explore space and benefit life on Earth. There are 47 astronauts in the active astronaut corps, and more will be needed to crew future missions to the space station and destinations in deep space.

Astronaut candidates (U.S. citizens) must have earned a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics. An advanced degree is desirable. Candidates also must have at least three years of related, progressively responsible professional experience, or at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft. Astronaut candidates must pass the NASA long-duration spaceflight physical.

For more information about a career as a NASA astronaut, and application requirements, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/astronauts

Related links:

NASA’s Orion deep-space exploration vehicle: http://www.nasa.gov/Orion

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket: http://www.nasa.gov/sls

Commercial crew: https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/crew/index.html

One-year mission: https://www.nasa.gov/content/one-year-crew

Image, Video, Text, Credits: NASA/Tabatha Thompson/Kathryn Hambleton/Karen Northon/Johnson Space Center/Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA Sees First Land-falling Tropical Cyclone in Yemen

NASA - Aqua Mission logo / NASA - ISS-RapidScat logo.

Nov. 3, 2015

Chapala (Northern Indian Ocean)

Tropical Cyclone Chapala made landfall in Yemen early on November 3 (Eastern Standard Time) and made history as the first land-falling tropical storm in 30 years of record-keeping. As Chapala made landfall NASA's Aqua satellite passed overhead twice.

Image above: On Nov. 3, 2015 at 07:20 UTC (2:20 a.m. EDT) the MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured this image of Tropical Cyclone Chapala over Yemen. Image Credits: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team.

On November 2, Tropical Cyclone Chapala maintained hurricane-strength as it skirted the Yemeni coastline. The RapidScat instrument that flies aboard the International Space Station saw Chapala's strongest winds in the northeastern quadrant near 40 meters per second (89.4 mph/144 kph). After RapidScat saw the storm, Chapala's eye made landfall just west of Al Mukalla with maximum sustained winds near 85 mph (140 kph). Chapala then moved west along the coast, briefly emerged over the Gulf of Aden and made a second landfall west of Balhaf, central Yemen.

Image above: This false-colored infrared image from Nov. 3 at 10:17 UTC (5:17 a.m. EDT) shows the coldest (blue) cloud top temperatures in tropical storm Chapala after it made landfall in Yemen. Image Credits: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen.

Al Mukalla has a desert climate and the average rainfall is about 1.72 inches or 45 mm. Rainfall from the storm is a serious concern. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted that the storm could generate 200 mm (7 inches), which is four times the average annual rainfall.

Artist's view of Aqua satellite. Image Credit: NASA

On Nov. 3, 2015 at 07:20 UTC (2:20 a.m. EDT) the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of Tropical Cyclone Chapala over Yemen. At the time of the image, Chapala appeared to still have a pinhole eye near the coast. The MODIS image showed bands of powerful thunderstorms over the Arabian Sea, to the east of the center and wrapping around the storm and into the center from the north.



Image above: The RapidScat instrument saw Chapala's strongest winds in the northeastern quadrant on Nov. 3 near 40 meters per second (dark red)/89.4 mph/144 kph). Image Credits: NASA JPL, Doug Tyler.

On Nov. 3 at 10:17 UTC (5:17 a.m. EDT) NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Chapala again and looked at the storm in infrared light. The data was made into a false-colored infrared image at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The AIRS image showed the coldest cloud top temperatures along the coast and north of the center of circulation. Coldest cloud tops indicate strongest storms.Cloud top temperatures as cold as minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 53 degrees Celsius have been shown to generate heavy rainfall.

ISS-RapidScat in action. Animation Credit: NASA

At 1500 UTC (10 a.m. EDT) on Nov. 3, 2015, Tropical Cyclone Chapala's maximum sustained winds were near 55 knots (63.2 mph/101.9 kph), making it a tropical storm. It was centered near 14.0 degrees north latitude, and 47.7 degrees east longitude, southwest of Al Mukalla. It was moving to the west-northwest at 2 knots (2.3 mph/3.7 kph).

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center discussion at 1500 UTC noted that Chapala will continue to rapidly decay over the next 24 hours due to land interaction, increased vertical wind shear and dry air moving into the storm from the Hadhramaut Region.

Chapala's maximum sustained winds are expected to weaken to 25 knots (28.7 mph/46.3 kph) by Nov. 4 at 1200 UTC (7 a.m. EDT) and dissipate within 24 hours.

For more information about ISS-RapidScat, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/iss-rapidscat/

For more information about Aqua satellite mission, visit: http://aqua.nasa.gov/

Images (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Rob Gutro.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Radar Images Provide New Details on Halloween Asteroid

Asteroid Watch logo.

Nov. 3, 2015

The highest-resolution radar images of asteroid 2015 TB145's safe flyby of Earth have been processed. NASA scientists used giant, Earth-based radio telescopes to bounce radar signals off the asteroid as it flew past Earth on Oct. 31 at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT) at about 1.3 lunar distances (300,000 miles, or 480,000 kilometers) from Earth. Asteroid 2015 TB145 is spherical in shape and approximately 2,000 feet (600 meters) in diameter.

Image above: Asteroid 2015 TB145 is depicted in eight individual radar images collected on Oct. 31, 2015 between 5:55 a.m. PDT (8:55 a.m. EDT) and 6:08 a.m. PDT (9:08 a.m. EDT). At the time the radar images were taken, the asteroid was between 440,000 miles (710,000 kilometers) and about 430,000 miles (690,000 kilometers) distant. Asteroid 2015 TB145 safely flew past Earth on Oct. 31, at 10:00 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT) at about 1.3 lunar distances (300,000 miles, 480,000 kilometers). Images Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR/NRAO/AUI/NSF.

"The radar images of asteroid 2015 TB145 show portions of the surface not seen previously and reveal pronounced concavities, bright spots that might be boulders, and other complex features that could be ridges," said Lance Benner of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who leads NASA's asteroid radar research program. "The images look distinctly different from the Arecibo radar images obtained on Oct. 30 and are probably the result of seeing the asteroid from a different perspective in its three-hour rotation period."

Radar images of asteroid 2015 TB145 acquired by Arecibo Observatory are available at these sites:

http://on.fb.me/1MahsY8

https://twitter.com/AreciboRadar/status/661293813713928192

To obtain these highest-resolution radar images of the asteroid, scientists used the 230-foot (70-meter) DSS-14 antenna at Goldstone, California, to transmit high-power microwaves toward the asteroid. The signal bounced off the asteroid, and its radar echoes were received by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s 100-meter (330-foot) Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. The radar images achieve a spatial resolution as fine as 13 feet (4 meters) per pixel.

The next time that asteroid 2015 TB145 will be in Earth's neighborhood will be in September 2018, when it will make a distant pass at about 24 million miles (38 million kilometers), or about a quarter the distance between Earth and the sun.

 230-foot (70-meter) DSS-14 antenna at Goldstone. Image Credit: NASA

Radar is a powerful technique for studying an asteroid's size, shape, rotation, surface features and surface roughness, and for improving the calculation of asteroid orbits. Radar measurements of asteroid distances and velocities often enable computation of asteroid orbits much further into the future than would be possible otherwise.

NASA places a high priority on tracking asteroids and protecting our home planet from them. In fact, the U.S. has the most robust and productive survey and detection program for discovering near-Earth objects (NEOs). To date, U.S. assets have discovered about 98 percent of known NEOs.

In addition to the resources NASA puts into understanding asteroids, it also partners with other U.S. government agencies, university-based astronomers, and space science institutes across the country, often with grants, interagency transfers and other contracts from NASA, and also with international space agencies and institutions that are working to track and better understand these objects. In addition, NASA values the work of numerous highly skilled amateur astronomers, whose accurate observational data helps improve asteroid orbits after they are found.

JPL hosts the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies for NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program within the agency's Science Mission Directorate.

More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is at these sites:

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Tony Greicius/JPL/DC Agle/National Radio Astronomy Observatory/Charles Blue.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Whopping Galaxy Cluster Spotted with Help of NASA Telescopes

NASA - Spitzer Space Telescope logo / NASA - WISE Mission patch.

Nov. 3, 2015

Astronomers have discovered a giant gathering of galaxies in a very remote part of the universe, thanks to NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The galaxy cluster, located 8.5 billion light-years away, is the most massive structure yet found at such great distances.

Image above: The galaxy cluster called MOO J1142+1527 can be seen here as it existed when light left it 8.5 billion years ago. The red galaxies at the center of the image make up the heart of the galaxy cluster. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Gemini/CARMA.

Galaxy clusters are gravitationally bound groups of thousands of galaxies, which themselves each contain hundreds of billions of stars. The clusters grow bigger and bigger over time as they acquire new members.

How did these clusters evolve over time? What did they look like billions of years ago? To answer these questions, astronomers look back in time to our youthful universe. Because light takes time to reach us, we can see very distant objects as they were in the past. For example, we are seeing the newfound galaxy cluster -- called Massive Overdense Object (MOO) J1142+1527 -- as it existed 8.5 billion years ago, long before Earth formed.

As light from remote galaxies makes its way to us, it becomes stretched to longer, infrared wavelengths by the expansion of space. That's where WISE and Spitzer help out.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

For infrared space telescopes, picking out distant galaxies is like plucking ripe cherries from a cherry tree. In the infrared images produced by Spitzer, these distant galaxies stand out as red dots, while closer galaxies look white. Astronomers first combed through the WISE catalog to find candidates for clusters of distant galaxies. WISE catalogued hundreds of millions of objects in images taken over the entire sky from 2010 to 2011.

They then used Spitzer to narrow in on 200 of the most interesting objects, in a project named the “Massive and Distant Clusters of WISE Survey,” or MaDCoWS. Spitzer doesn't observe the whole sky like WISE, but can see more detail.

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). Image Credit: NASA

"It's the combination of Spitzer and WISE that lets us go from a quarter billion objects down to the most massive galaxy clusters in the sky," said Anthony Gonzalez of the University of Florida in Gainesville, lead author of a new study published in the Oct. 20 issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

From these observations, MOO J1142+1527 jumped out as one of the most extreme.

The W.M. Keck Observatories and Gemini Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii were used to measure the distance to the cluster at 8.5 billion light-years. Using data from the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA) telescopes near Owens Valley in California, the scientists were then able to determine that the cluster's mass is a quadrillion times that of our sun -- making it the most massive known cluster that far back in space and time.

MOO J1142+1527 may be one of only a handful of clusters of this heft in the early universe, according to the scientists' estimates.

"Based on our understanding of how galaxy clusters grow from the very beginning of our universe, this cluster should be one of the five most massive in existence at that time," said co-author Peter Eisenhardt, the project scientist for WISE at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

In the coming year, the team plans to sift through more than 1,700 additional galaxy cluster candidates with Spitzer, looking for biggest of the bunch.

"Once we find the most massive clusters, we can start to investigate how galaxies evolved in these extreme environments," said Gonzalez.

JPL managed and operated WISE for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. In September 2013, WISE was reactivated, renamed NEOWISE and assigned a new mission to assist NASA's efforts to identify potentially hazardous near-Earth objects. JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations and data processing for Spitzer and NEOWISE take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

More information about WISE is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/wise

More information about Spitzer is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer and http://spitzer.caltech.edu

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/JPL/Whitney Clavin/Tony Greicius.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Celebrity comet spotted among Gaia’s stars

ESA - Gaia Mission patch.

3 November 2015

Rosetta comet seen by Gaia

A local cosmic celebrity was recently pictured among the multitude of stars and Solar System bodies surveyed by ESA’s Gaia satellite: Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, currently accompanied by another ESA spacecraft, Rosetta.

While scanning the sky to map the positions and motions of a billion stars in our Galaxy, Gaia also picks up objects much closer to home, such as asteroids and comets in the Solar System.

With its ability to detect faint and moving objects, Gaia has already identified tens of thousands of asteroids since routine science operations began in July 2014, and these data will be used to determine their orbits to unprecedented accuracy.

Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way

Gaia is optimised to detect stars, which appear as point sources in its camera, and measure their properties, but it does not routinely return images of celestial objects. However, a special trick can be used to image a particular object. This is what Gaia astronomers did to ensure that, when the satellite scanned the patch of the sky including Rosetta’s comet, the star-mapper camera would capture an image of this iconic object.

Rosetta’s comet is currently between the orbits of Earth and Mars. It reached its peak brightness between August and September, having passed the closest point to the Sun on its 6.5 year orbit on 13 August. Rosetta has been at the comet since August 2014, studying the surface and environment as they swing around the Sun, and it will continue these investigations until the end of the mission in September 2016.

Meanwhile, closer to Earth, Gaia surveys the entire sky about every three months, and calculations predicted that it would scan the portion of the sky with Rosetta and its comet on 14 September. For this special occasion, the astronomers made sure that Gaia’s star-mapper camera would cover that patch of the sky using a special mode in which a full image is recorded and transmitted to the ground instead of point sources only.

Comet nucleus seen by Rosetta on 21 September

The image shows the comet’s coma and tail. The nucleus and Rosetta, which was some 300 km from the surface at the time, are both hidden in the innermost pixel. A number of background stars are also sprinkled around the image, which measures about 4.5 arcminutes across – about one-seventh of the Moon’s diameter.

While this image of Rosetta’s comet has mainly a symbolic value – an ESA mission, 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, looking at a fellow science mission and its object of study, both located over 260 million kilometres away – scientific data were also collected during this observation.

In fact, besides the special observing mode used to obtain the image, the comet was also caught by the onboard detection software as a ‘suspected moving object’. Over the three-second observation, it appeared to move by some 100 km with respect to the background stars, as seen from a distance of 260 million kilometres.

Over its five-year mission, Gaia will observe hundreds of comets and repeatedly measure their positions to unprecedented accuracy. These data will allow scientists to improve the orbit determination of many comets well beyond the precision that can be achieved with ground-based observations alone. They will also use Gaia’s observations to investigate their composition and surface properties.

Related links:

For more information about Gaia mission, visit: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Gaia

Gaia spacecraft testing: http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=31544&farchive_objecttypeid=31&farchive_objectid=30928

Vodcast: Charting the Galaxy - from Hipparcos to Gaia: http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=45772&fattributeid=885

Little books of Gaia: http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=35010

Make a Gaia model: http://www.rssd.esa.int/index.php?project=Gaia&page=Gaia_model

Explore stellar neighbourhood in 3D: http://workshop.chromeexperiments.com/stars/

Gaia launch campaign photos: http://sci.esa.int/gaia-launch-campaign-photos/

Images, Text, Credits: ESA/Gaia/DPAC. Acknowledgement: F. Mignard & P. Tanga, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, France/ATG medialab; background: ESO/S. Brunier/Rosetta/NavCam – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

CubeSat companions for ESA’s asteroid mission

ESA - AIM logo.


3 November 2015

The five CubeSat concepts to be studied to accompany ESA’s proposed Asteroid Impact Mission into deep space have been selected.

The ideas being looked at include taking a close-up look at the composition of the asteroid surface, measuring the gravity field, assessing the dust and ejecta plumes created during a collision, and landing a CubeSat for seismic monitoring.

AIM and CubeSats watch impact

The Asteroid Impact Mission, or AIM, undergoing detailed design ahead of a final go/no-go decision by ESA’s Ministerial Council in December 2016, is a deep-space technology-demonstration mission that would also be humanity’s first probe to rendezvous with a double asteroid.

AIM is also set to be Europe’s contribution to a larger international endeavour called the Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission: the US Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) would strike the smaller of the two Didymos asteroids, with AIM on hand for before-and-after monitoring of any resulting orbital and structural shifts.

Asteroid Impact Mission - AIM explained

Like a Russian doll, the main AIM spacecraft would carry smaller probes within it: the Mascot-2 lander from the DLR German Aerospace Center, and an additional pair of triple-unit CubeSats.

“CubeSats are nanosatellites based on standardised 10 cm-sized units, which are much cheaper and simpler to build than standard satellites, suitable for higher-risk missions such as envisaged for AIM,” explains Roger Walker, overseeing ESA’s technology CubeSat effort.

“They would in this case be deployed in the vicinity of the asteroid during the DART impact.

Triple-unit CubeSats

“Usually, CubeSats offer an easy means of scientists to launch their experiments into low-Earth orbit. But with AIM we are giving European research teams the chance to design instruments based on the CubeSat standard for deep space, to do specialised scientific work that will complement AIM’s main science goals.

“CubeSat hardware is easy for this community to access and adapt to their needs. It´s like taking inexpensive building kits to do top-notch science.”

“We put out a call for ideas for these CubeSat Opportunity Payloads through the SysNova initiative of ESA’s General Studies Programme,” says Andrés Galvez, Head of the Science Analysis and System Support Unit, which looks at how new instruments could be used in planned space missions. 

“Through SysNova we set technology challenges to get competing concepts we can then assess in detail ahead of making a final choice.

AIM networking with CubeSats

“There were a large number of proposals to the call and teams variously put forward concepts involving either one or two triple-unit CubeSats. We were very pleased by the response and the diversity of scientific missions put forward with such small satellites.”

The selected proposals will now be funded by ESA for detailed study, ahead of a final selection to fill the two berths in June next year.

The selected proposals are:

– AGEX (Royal Observatory of Belgium, ISAE-SUPAERO, Antwerp Space, EMXYS, Asteroid Initiatives Ltd). A CubeSat touches down to assess the surface material, surface gravity, subsurface structure and of the DART impact effects. Another CubeSat in orbit deploys smaller ‘chipsats’ dispersed over the asteroid.

– ASPECT (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, University of Helsinki, Aalto University Foundation). A CubeSat equipped with a near-infrared spectrometer to assess the asteroid composition and effects of space weathering and metamorphic shock, as well as post-impact plume observations.

– DustCube (University of Vigo, Micos Engineering GmbH, University of Bologna). A CubeSat to measure the size, shape and concentration of fine dust ejected in the aftermath of the collision and its evolution over time.

– CUBATA (GMV, Sapienza University of Rome, INTA). Two CubeSats measure the asteroid system’s gravity field pre- and post-impact through Doppler tracking of CubeSats, as well as performing close range imaging of the impact event.

– PALS (Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Institute for Space Sciences IEEC, Royal Institute of Technology KTH, AAC Microtec, DLR). Two CubeSats characterise the magnetisation, bulk chemical composition and presence of volatiles of the impact ejecta, as well as perform very high resolution imaging of the ejecta components.

AIM cubesat deployment

With these opportunity payloads, ESA is applying current European technology miniaturisation efforts to explore our wider Solar System in unprecedented ways, lowering the cost and risk of interplanetary missions.

Related article:

AIMing a light across millions of kilometres:
http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2015/10/aiming-light-across-millions-of.html

Related links:

Technology CubeSats: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering_Technology/Technology_CubeSats

SysNova: http://www.esa.int/About_Us/GSP/SysNova

AIDA science community: https://www-n.oca.eu/michel/AIDA/

NEO Space Mission Studies: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering_Technology/NEO

Partners:

NASA's Near Earth Objects Observations: http://science.nasa.gov/planetary-science/near-earth-objects/

DLR's MASCOT: http://www.dlr.de/irs/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-7902/13482_read-34316/

OHB: https://www.ohb-system.de/main-company.html

QinetiQ Space: http://www.qinetiq.com/Pages/default.aspx

OCA: https://www.oca.eu/?lang=en

APL: http://www.jhuapl.edu/aboutapl/

Images, Video, Text, Credits: ESA/ScienceOffice.org.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch