Coy Dione

NASA - Cassini Mission to Saturn patch.

Jan. 30, 2017

Dione's lit hemisphere faces away from Cassini's camera, yet the moon's darkened surface features are dimly illuminated in this image, due to Saturnshine.

Although direct sunlight provides the best illumination for imaging, light reflected off of Saturn can do the job as well. In this image, Dione (698 miles or 1,123 kilometers across) is above Saturn's day side, and the moon's night side is faintly illuminated by sunlight reflected off the planet's disk.

This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Dione. North on Dione is up and rotated 8 degrees to the right. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 23, 2016.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 313,000 miles (504,000 kilometers) from Dione. Image scale is 1.8 miles (3 kilometers) per pixel.

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 and 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

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

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

New Planet Imager Delivers First Science

W. M. Keck Observatory logo.

Jan. 30, 2017

A new device on the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii has delivered its first images, showing a ring of planet-forming dust around a star, and separately, a cool, star-like body, called a brown dwarf, lying near its companion star.

The device, called a vortex coronagraph, was recently installed inside NIRC2 (Near Infrared Camera 2), the workhorse infrared imaging camera at Keck. It has the potential to image planetary systems and brown dwarfs closer to their host stars than any other instrument in the world.

Image above: The vortex mask shown at left is made out of synthetic diamond. The mask is 0.4 inches (1 centimeter) in diameter and .01 inches (0.3 millimeters) thick. The vortex's engraved pattern of grooves is very similar to a compact disk, making it look like a miniature version of a CD. The image at right zooms into the mask's center with a scanning electron microscope. This view reveals the microstructure of the mask, highlighting its concentric grooves, which have a thickness about a hundred times smaller than that of a human hair. Images Credits: University of Liège/Uppsala University.

"The vortex coronagraph allows us to peer into the regions around stars where giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn supposedly form," said Dmitri Mawet, research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech, both in Pasadena. "Before now, we were only able to image gas giants that are born much farther out. With the vortex, we will be able to see planets orbiting as close to their stars as Jupiter is to our sun, or about two to three times closer than what was possible before."

The new vortex results are presented in two papers, both published in the January 2017 issue of The Astronomical Journal. One study, led by Gene Serabyn of JPL, the overall lead of the Keck vortex project, presents the first direct image of the brown dwarf called HIP79124 B. This brown dwarf is located 23 astronomical units from a star (an astronomical unit is the distance between our sun and Earth) in a nearby star-forming region called Scorpius-Centaurus.

"The ability to see very close to stars also allows us to search for planets around more distant stars, where the planets and stars would appear closer together. Having the ability to survey distant stars for planets is important for catching planets still forming," said Serabyn. He also led a team that tested a predecessor of the vortex device on the Hale Telescope at Caltech's Palomar Observatory, near San Diego. In 2010, the team secured high-contrast images of three planets orbiting in the distant reaches of the star system called HR8799.

Image above: This image shows the dusty disk of planetary material surrounding the young star HD 141569, located 380 light-years away from Earth. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

The second vortex study, led by Mawet, presents an image of the innermost of three rings of dusty, planet-forming material around the young star called HD141569A. The results, when combined with infrared data from NASA's Spitzer and WISE missions, and the European Space Agency's Herschel mission, reveal that the star's planet-forming material is made up of pebble-size grains of olivine, one of the most abundant silicates in Earth's mantle. The data also show that the temperature of the innermost ring imaged by the vortex is about minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit (100 Kelvin, or minus 173 degrees Celsius), a bit warmer than our asteroid belt.

"The three rings around this young star are nested like Russian dolls and undergoing dramatic changes reminiscent of planetary formation," said Mawet. "We have shown that silicate grains have agglomerated into pebbles, which are the building blocks of planet embryos."

About the vortex coronagraph

The vortex was invented in 2005 by Mawet while he was at the University of Liege in Belgium. The Keck vortex coronagraph was built by a combination of the University of Liege, Uppsala University in Sweden, JPL and Caltech.

The first science images and results from the vortex instrument demonstrate its ability to image planet-forming regions hidden under the glare of stars. Stars outshine planets by a factor of few thousand to a few billion, making the dim light of planets very difficult to see, especially for planets that lie close to their stars. To deal with this challenge, researchers have invented Instruments called coronagraphs, which typically use tiny masks to block the starlight, much like blocking the bright sun with your hand or a car visor to see better.

Image above: This image shows brown dwarf HIP 79124 B, located 23 times as far from its host star as Earth is from the sun. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

What makes the vortex coronagraph unique is that it does not block the starlight with a mask, but instead redirects light away from the detectors using a technique in which light waves are combined and canceled out. Because the vortex doesn't require an occulting mask, it has the advantage of taking images of regions closer to stars than other coronagraphs. Mawet likens the process to the eye of a storm.

"The instrument is called a vortex coronagraph because the starlight is centered on an optical singularity, which creates a dark hole at the location of the image of the star," said Mawet. "Hurricanes have a singularity at their centers where the wind speeds drop to zero -- the eye of the storm. Our vortex coronagraph is basically the eye of an optical storm where we send the starlight."

What's next for the vortex

In the future, the vortex will look at many more young planetary systems, in particular planets near the "frost lines," which are the region around a star where temperatures are cold enough for volatile molecules, such as water, methane and carbon dioxide, to condense into solid icy grains. The frost line is thought to divide a solar system into regions where planets are likely to become rocky or gas giants. Surveys of the frost line region by the vortex coronagraph will help answer ongoing puzzles about a class of hot, giant planets found extremely close to their stars -- the "hot Jupiters," and "hot Neptunes." Did these planets first form close to the frost line and migrate in, or did they form right next to their stars? "With a bit of luck, we might catch planets in the process of migrating through the planet-forming disk, by looking at these very young objects," Mawet said.

Image above: The twin Keck 10m telescopes on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Image Credit: W. M. Keck Observatory.

"The power of the vortex lies in its ability to image planets very close to their star, something that we can't do for Earth-like planets yet," said Serabyn. "The vortex coronagraph may be key to taking the first images of a pale blue dot like our own."

The Keck Observatory is managed by Caltech and the University of California. In 1996, NASA joined as a one-sixth partner in the Keck Observatory. JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA.

Keck Observatory: http://www.keckobservatory.org/

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

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA's Fermi Discovers the Most Extreme Blazars Yet

NASA - Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope logo.

Jan. 30, 2017

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has identified the farthest gamma-ray blazars, a type of galaxy whose intense emissions are powered by supersized black holes. Light from the most distant object began its journey to us when the universe was 1.4 billion years old, or nearly 10 percent of its present age.

NASAs Fermi Finds the Farthest Blazars

Video above: NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has discovered the five most distant gamma-ray blazars yet known. The light detected by Fermi left these galaxies by the time the universe was two billion years old. Two of these galaxies harbor billion-solar-mass black holes that challenge current ideas about how quickly such monsters could grow. Video Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Wiessinger, producer.

"Despite their youth, these far-flung blazars host some of the most massive black holes known," said Roopesh Ojha, an astronomer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "That they developed so early in cosmic history challenges current ideas of how supermassive black holes form and grow, and we want to find more of these objects to help us better understand the process."

Ojha presented the findings Monday, Jan. 30, at the American Physical Society meeting in Washington, and a paper describing the results has been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Blazars constitute roughly half of the gamma-ray sources detected by Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT). Astronomers think their high-energy emissions are powered by matter heated and torn apart as it falls from a storage, or accretion, disk toward a supermassive black hole with a million or more times the sun's mass. A small part of this infalling material becomes redirected into a pair of particle jets, which blast outward in opposite directions at nearly the speed of light. Blazars appear bright in all forms of light, including gamma rays, the highest-energy light, when one of the jets happens to point almost directly toward us.

Image above: Black-hole-powered galaxies called blazars are the most common sources detected by NASA's Fermi. As matter falls toward the supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center, some of it is accelerated outward at nearly the speed of light along jets pointed in opposite directions. When one of the jets happens to be aimed in the direction of Earth, as illustrated here, the galaxy appears especially bright and is classified as a blazar. Image Credits: M. Weiss/CfA.

Previously, the most distant blazars detected by Fermi emitted their light when the universe was about 2.1 billion years old. Earlier observations showed that the most distant blazars produce most of their light at energies right in between the range detected by the LAT and current X-ray satellites, which made finding them extremely difficult.

Then, in 2015, the Fermi team released a full reprocessing of all LAT data, called Pass 8, that ushered in so many improvements astronomers said it was like having a brand new instrument. The LAT's boosted sensitivity at lower energies increased the chances of discovering more far-off blazars.

The research team was led by Vaidehi Paliya and Marco Ajello at Clemson University in South Carolina and included Dario Gasparrini at the Italian Space Agency's Science Data Center in Rome as well as Ojha. They began by searching for the most distant sources in a catalog of 1.4 million quasars, a galaxy class closely related to blazars. Because only the brightest sources can be detected at great cosmic distances, they then eliminated all but the brightest objects at radio wavelengths from the list. With a final sample of about 1,100 objects, the scientists then examined LAT data for all of them, resulting in the detection of five new gamma-ray blazars.

Expressed in terms of redshift, astronomers' preferred measure of the deep cosmos, the new blazars range from redshift 3.3 to 4.31, which means the light we now detect from them started on its way when the universe was between 1.9 and 1.4 billion years old, respectively.

"Once we found these sources, we collected all the available multiwavelength data on them and derived properties like the black hole mass, the accretion disk luminosity, and the jet power," said Paliya.

Artist's view of Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Image Credit: NASA

Two of the blazars boast black holes of a billion solar masses or more. All of the objects possess extremely luminous accretion disks that emit more than two trillion times the energy output of our sun. This means matter is continuously falling inward, corralled into a disk and heated before making the final plunge to the black hole.

"The main question now is how these huge black holes could have formed in such a young universe," said Gasparrini. "We don't know what mechanisms triggered their rapid development."

In the meantime, the team plans to continue a deep search for additional examples.

"We think Fermi has detected just the tip of the iceberg, the first examples of a galaxy population that previously has not been detected in gamma rays," said Ajello.

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy and with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden and the United States.

For more information on Fermi, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/fermi

​Related articles:

NASA's WISE, Fermi Missions Reveal a Surprising Blazar Connection: http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2016/08/nasas-wise-fermi-missions-reveal.html

NASA's Fermi Telescope Helps Link Cosmic Neutrino to Blazar Blast: http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2016/04/nasas-fermi-telescope-helps-link-cosmic.html

NASA's Fermi Satellite Kicks Off a Blazar-detecting Bonanza: http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2015/12/nasas-fermi-satellite-kicks-off-blazar.html

Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, by Francis Reddy/Rob Garner.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Close Views Show Saturn's Rings in Unprecedented Detail

NASA - Cassini International logo.

Jan. 30, 2017

Newly released images showcase the incredible closeness with which NASA's Cassini spacecraft, now in its "Ring-Grazing" orbits phase, is observing Saturn's dazzling rings of icy debris.

The views are some of the closest-ever images of the outer parts of the main rings, giving scientists an eagerly awaited opportunity to observe features with names like "straw" and "propellers." Although Cassini saw these features earlier in the mission, the spacecraft’s current, special orbits are now providing opportunities to see them in greater detail. The new images resolve details as small as 0.3 miles (550 meters), which is on the scale of Earth's tallest buildings.

Image above: This Cassini image features a density wave in Saturn's A ring (at left) that lies around 134,500 km from Saturn. Density waves are accumulations of particles at certain distances from the planet. This feature is filled with clumpy perturbations, which researchers informally refer to as "straw." The wave itself is created by the gravity of the moons Janus and Epimetheus, which share the same orbit around Saturn. Elsewhere, the scene is dominated by "wakes" from a recent pass of the ring moon Pan. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.

Cassini is now about halfway through its penultimate mission phase -- 20 orbits that dive past the outer edge of the main ring system. The ring-grazing orbits began last November, and will continue until late April, when Cassini begins its grand finale. During the 22 finale orbits, Cassini will repeatedly plunge through the gap between the rings and Saturn. The first finale plunge is scheduled for April 26.

For now, the veteran spacecraft is shooting past the outer edges of the rings every week, gathering some of its best images of the rings and moons. Already Cassini has sent back the closest-ever views of small moons Daphnis and Pandora.

Some of the structures seen in recent Cassini images have not been visible at this level of detail since the spacecraft arrived at Saturn in mid-2004. At that time, fine details like straw and propellers -- which are caused by clumping ring particles and small, embedded moonlets, respectively -- had never been seen before. (Although propellers were present in Cassini's arrival images, they were actually discovered in later analysis, the following year.)

Image above: This image shows a region in Saturn's outer B ring. NASA's Cassini spacecraft viewed this area at a level of detail twice as high as it had ever been observed before. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.

Cassini came a bit closer to the rings during its arrival at Saturn, but the quality of those arrival images (examples: 1, 2, 3) was not as high as in the new views. Those precious few observations only looked out on the backlit side of the rings, and the team chose short exposure times to minimize smearing due to Cassini's fast motion as it vaulted over the ring plane. This resulted in images that were scientifically stunning, but somewhat dark and noisy.

In contrast, the close views Cassini has begun capturing in its ring-grazing orbits (and soon will capture in its Grand Finale phase) are taking in both the backlit and sunlit side of the rings. Instead of just one brief pass lasting a few hours, Cassini is making several dozen passes during these final months.

"As the person who planned those initial orbit-insertion ring images -- which remained our most detailed views of the rings for the past 13 years -- I am taken aback by how vastly improved are the details in this new collection," said Cassini Imaging Team Lead Carolyn Porco, of Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado. "How fitting it is that we should go out with the best views of Saturn's rings we've ever collected."

Image above: This image shows a region in Saturn's outer B ring. NASA's Cassini spacecraft viewed this area at a level of detail twice as high as it had ever been observed before. And from this view, it is clear that there are still finer details to uncover. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.

After nearly 13 years studying Saturn's rings from orbit, the Cassini team has a deeper, richer understanding of what they're seeing, but they still anticipate new surprises.

"These close views represent the opening of an entirely new window onto Saturn’s rings, and over the next few months we look forward to even more exciting data as we train our cameras on other parts of the rings closer to the planet," said Matthew Tiscareno, a Cassini scientist who studies Saturn's rings at the SETI Institute, Mountain View, California. Tiscareno planned the new images for the camera team.

Launched in 1997, Cassini has been touring the Saturn system since arriving in 2004 for an up-close study of the planet, its rings and moons, and its vast magnetosphere. Cassini has made numerous dramatic discoveries, including a global ocean with indications of hydrothermal activity within the moon Enceladus, and liquid methane seas on another moon, Titan.

Image above: This image from NASA's Cassini mission shows a region in Saturn's A ring. The level of detail is twice as high as this part of the rings has ever been seen before. The view contains many small, bright blemishes due to cosmic rays and charged particle radiation near the planet. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the mission for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of Caltech in Pasadena. The Cassini imaging operations center is based at Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about Cassini, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/cassini

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Tony Greicius/CICLOPS/Space Science Institute/Steve Mullins/JPL/Preston Dyches.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA's Fermi Sees Gamma Rays from 'Hidden' Solar Flares

NASA - Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope logo / NASA - STEREO Mission logo.

Jan. 30, 2017

An international science team says NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has observed high-energy light from solar eruptions located on the far side of the sun, which should block direct light from these events. This apparent paradox is providing solar scientists with a unique tool for exploring how charged particles are accelerated to nearly the speed of light and move across the sun during solar flares.

"Fermi is seeing gamma rays from the side of the sun we're facing, but the emission is produced by streams of particles blasted out of solar flares on the far side of the sun," said Nicola Omodei, a researcher at Stanford University in California. "These particles must travel some 300,000 miles within about five minutes of the eruption to produce this light."

Omodei presented the findings on Monday, Jan. 30, at the American Physical Society meeting in Washington, and a paper describing the results will be published online in The Astrophysical Journal on Jan. 31.

Fermi Sees Gamma Rays from Far Side Solar Flares

Video above: On three occasions, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has detected gamma rays from solar storms on the far side of the sun, emission the Earth-orbiting satellite shouldn't be able to detect. Particles accelerated by these eruptions somehow reach around to produce a gamma-ray glow on the side of the sun facing Earth and Fermi. Watch to learn more. Video Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Wiessinger, producer.

Fermi has doubled the number of these rare events, called behind-the-limb flares, since it began scanning the sky in 2008. Its Large Area Telescope (LAT) has captured gamma rays with energies reaching 3 billion electron volts, some 30 times greater than the most energetic light previously associated with these "hidden" flares.

Thanks to NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft, which were monitoring the solar far side when the eruptions occurred, the Fermi events mark the first time scientists have direct imaging of beyond-the-limb solar flares associated with high-energy gamma rays.

Animations above: These solar flares were imaged in extreme ultraviolet light by NASA's STEREO satellites, which at the time were viewing the side of the sun facing away from Earth. All three events launched fast coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Although NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope couldn't see the eruptions directly, it detected high-energy gamma rays from all of them. Scientists think particles accelerated by the CMEs rained onto the Earth-facing side of the sun and produced the gamma rays. The central image was returned by the STEREO A spacecraft, all others are from STEREO B. Animations Credit: NASA/STEREO.

"Observations by Fermi's LAT continue to have a significant impact on the solar physics community in their own right, but the addition of STEREO observations provides extremely valuable information of how they mesh with the big picture of solar activity," said Melissa Pesce-Rollins, a researcher at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Pisa, Italy, and a co-author of the paper.

The hidden flares occurred Oct. 11, 2013, and Jan. 6 and Sept. 1, 2014. All three events were associated with fast coronal mass ejections (CMEs), where billion-ton clouds of solar plasma were launched into space. The CME from the most recent event was moving at nearly 5 million miles an hour as it left the sun. Researchers suspect particles accelerated at the leading edge of the CMEs were responsible for the gamma-ray emission.

Large magnetic field structures can connect the acceleration site with distant part of the solar surface. Because charged particles must remain attached to magnetic field lines, the research team thinks particles accelerated at the CME traveled to the sun's visible side along magnetic field lines connecting both locations. As the particles impacted the surface, they generated gamma-ray emission through a variety of processes. One prominent mechanism is thought to be proton collisions that result in a particle called a pion, which quickly decays into gamma rays.

Animation above: Combined images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (center) and the NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (red and blue) show an impressive coronal mass ejection departing the far side of the sun on Sept. 1, 2014. This massive cloud raced away at about 5 million mph and likely accelerated particles that later produced gamma rays Fermi detected. Animation Credits: NASA/SDO and NASA/ESA/SOHO.

In its first eight years, Fermi has detected high-energy emission from more than 40 solar flares. More than half of these are ranked as moderate, or M class, events. In 2012, Fermi caught the highest-energy emission ever detected from the sun during a powerful X-class flare, from which the LAT detected high­energy gamma rays for more than 20 record-setting hours.

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy and with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden and the United States.

For more information on Fermi, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/fermi

Related links:

STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/main/index.html

Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/main/index.html

Animations (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, by Francis Reddy/Rob Garner.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Major Review Completed for NASA’s New SLS Exploration Upper Stage

NASA - Space Launch System (SLS) logo.

Jan. 30, 2017

NASA has successfully completed the exploration upper stage (EUS) preliminary design review for the powerful Space Launch System rocket. The detailed assessment is a big step forward in being ready for more capable human and robotic missions to deep space, including the first crewed flight of SLS and NASA's Orion spacecraft in 2021.

"To send humans and even more cargo farther away from Earth than ever before, NASA decided to add a more powerful upper stage -- the upper part of the rocket that continues to operate after launch and ascent," said Kent Chojnacki, EUS team lead and preliminary design review manager.

Image above: Artist concept of the next configuration of the Space Launch System rocket. Future versions of SLS, like this one, will have a powerful exploration upper stage. NASA successfully completed a preliminary design review for the EUS in late January. Now, the SLS team will start developing components and materials for the EUS, and build up tooling. Image Credit: NASA.

"With the completion of this review, our teams will start developing components and materials for the EUS, and build up tooling," he added. "Full-scale manufacturing will begin after the critical design phase is completed." Critical design review is the next programmatic milestone that will provide a final look at the design and development of the EUS before beginning full-scale fabrication.

Starting with that first crewed mission, future configurations of SLS will include the larger exploration upper stage and use four RL10C-3 engines. The EUS will replace the interim cryogenic propulsion stage that will be used on the initial configuration of SLS for the first, uncrewed flight with Orion. The EUS will use an 8.4-meter diameter liquid hydrogen tank and a 5.5-meter diameter liquid oxygen tank. A new universal stage adapter will connect the EUS to the Orion spacecraft, and be capable of carrying large co-manifested payloads, such as a habitat.

Image above: An expanded view of the next configuration of NASA's Space Launch System rocket, including the four RL10 engines. Image Credit: NASA.

The preliminary design review kicked off Nov. 30, 2016, with approximately 500 experts from across NASA and industry assessing more than 320 items on the EUS, including documents and data. This review had a new "techie" touch to it with the incorporation of virtual reality glasses, which gave teams enhanced visuals of how the EUS is put together and a broader perspective on the size of the hardware. The preliminary design review board was completed Jan. 19, with the board voting unanimously that the EUS is ready to move to the critical design phase.

"I couldn’t be prouder of the SLS Stages team completing this review," said SLS Program Manager John Honeycutt. "We continue to make progress on hardware for SLS’s first flight, while also working on the next-generation rocket that will take astronauts to deep-space destinations, like Mars."

The powerful stage will be built at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Massive welding machines, like the Vertical Assembly Center, currently building the SLS core stage, also will help build the EUS liquid hydrogen tank. New tooling and assembly areas will be put in place to manufacture the liquid oxygen tank.

Major Review Completed for NASA’s New SLS Exploration Upper Stage

Video above: As shown in this new animation, future configurations of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket will include a powerful exploration upper stage (EUS) with four RL10C-3 engines. This is the part of the rocket that continues to operate after launch and ascent. The EUS will use an 8.4-meter diameter liquid hydrogen tank and a 5.5-meter diameter liquid oxygen tank. A new universal stage adapter will connect the EUS to the NASA’s Orion spacecraft, and be capable of carrying large co-manifested payloads, such as a habitat, on the same flight as Orion. NASA successfully completed a preliminary design review for the EUS in late January. Now, the SLS team will start developing components and materials for the EUS, and build up tooling. The EUS is first slated to be part of the 105-metric-ton SLS that will be the first flight carrying Orion and astronauts. The detailed assessment is a step forward for the agency’s capabilities for human and robotic missions to deep space including future missions to Mars. Video Credit: NASA.

Once built, the EUS structural test article will undergo qualification testing at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, to ensure the hardware can withstand the incredible stresses of launch. "Green run" testing on the first flight article will be done at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. For the test, the EUS and RL10 engines will fire up together for the first time before being sent to Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the 2021 launch.

NASA's Orion spacecraft: https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/index.html

Space Launch System (SLS): https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/index.html

Journey to Mars: https://www.nasa.gov/topics/journeytomars/index.html

Images (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Jennifer Harbaugh/Marshall Space Flight Center/Kim Henry/Tracy McMahan.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Kennedy Space Center's NASA Day of Remembrance Honors Fallen Astronauts

NASA - Apollo 1 Mission patch / NASA - STS-51L Mission patch / NASA - STS-107 Mission patch.

Jan. 28, 2017

On Jan. 26, 2017, Kennedy Space Center employees and guests paid their respects to astronauts who have perished in the conquest of space. The annual Kennedy Day of Remembrance activities included a ceremony in the Center for Space Education at Kennedy's visitor complex. The observance was hosted by the Astronauts Memorial Foundation (AMF), paying tribute to those who acknowledged space is an unforgiving environment, but believed exploration is worth the risk.

The following day, Jan. 27, marks the 50th anniversary of the loss of the crew of Apollo 1. The ceremony also honored the astronauts of the STS-51L Challenger crew who perished in 1986, the STS-107 crew of Columbia who died in 2003, along with other astronauts who were lost in the line of duty.

Image above: Gemini 10 and Apollo 11 astronaut Mike Collins, served as keynote speaker for the Kennedy Space Center's NASA Day of Remembrance ceremony which took place in the Astronauts Memorial Foundation's Center for Space Education at Kennedy's visitor complex. Image Credits: NASA/Kim Shiflett.

NASA Acting Administrator, Robert Lightfoot, noted that spaceflight is a tough, unforgiving business.

"The reward is the pursuit of knowledge and the advancement of what we learn as human beings. It's written in our DNA to continue that journey," he said. "My generation stands on the shoulders of these giants we are honoring and recognizing. They exemplify the pioneering spirit that got us to where we are today."

Center Director Bob Cabana, a former space shuttle commander, spoke on the reason for the ceremony.

"Each year, at this time, we come together and we pause to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice in our quest to explore beyond our home planet," he said. "We pause to enforce the lessons learned so they are not repeated again."

Looking ahead, Cabana challenged the NASA-industry team to apply the crucial instructions from previous tragedies.

"Creating and maintaining a culture of trust and openness is the greatest lesson we can learn from the past," he said. "It is critical for our future success and the success of our commercial partners."

Apollo 1 was scheduled to lift off from Cape Kennedy (now Cape Canaveral) Air Force Station on Feb. 21, 1967. A veteran of both Mercury and Gemini, Gus Grissom was selected as commander. Senior pilot was Ed White, the first American to walk in space. Rounding out the crew was first-time flyer Roger Chaffee, a member of the third group of NASA astronauts.

Image above: Astronauts, from the left, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee stand near Cape Kennedy's Launch Complex 34 during training for Apollo 1 in January 1967. Image Credit: NASA.

On the afternoon of Jan. 27, 1967, the Apollo 1 crew arrived at the Cape's Launch Complex 34 for a launch countdown rehearsal. They boarded their spacecraft perched atop a Saturn 1B rocket. At 6:31 p.m. EST a cockpit fire was reported by the crew. Ground crews worked valiantly to open the complex hatch, but the crew perished before it could be removed.

Former Gemini 10 and Apollo 11 astronaut Mike Collins, served as keynote speaker. He noted that the lessons learned from the Apollo 1 accident were crucial to the ultimate success of the lunar landing program.

"Apollo 1 is just as important to contemplate as a launch that did not take place, but which was, in many ways, as important as any that flew," he said. "It slowed things down, but we gained increased reliability."

Sheryl Chaffee, daughter of Roger Chaffee, recently retired after working for NASA at Kennedy for 33 years. She echoed Collins comments.

"From the ashes of the Apollo 1 fire came the hard lessons NASA had to learn in order to have successful flights to the moon and for further exploration of space," she said. "I'm so proud to be here today with all of you to pay tribute to my father, his crewmates and the other fallen astronauts memorialized on the space mirror."

Apollo 16 lunar module pilot Charlie Duke, State Rep. Thad Altman, president and chief executive officer of the AMF, and Apollo launch team member John Tribe also participated in the ceremony.

Image above: Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana speaks to guests at the Florida spaceport's NASA Day of Remembrance ceremony. "Creating and maintaining a culture of trust and openness is the greatest lesson we can learn from the past," he said. Image Credits: NASA/Kim Shiflett.

The ceremony included the Viera High School Army junior ROTC color guard and the national anthem performed by a vocal ensemble from DeLaura Middle School in Satellite Beach. A musical selection also was performed by Brandon Heath, a contemporary Christian musician from Nashville, Tennessee.

The AMF is a private, not-for-profit organization that honors and memorializes astronauts who sacrificed their lives for the nation and the space program. AMF built and maintains the Space Mirror Memorial and The Center for Space Education at the Kennedy visitor complex.

The Space Mirror Memorial includes the names of the fallen astronauts from Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia, as well as astronauts who perished in training and commercial airplane accidents. The names are emblazoned on the monument's 45-foot-high-by-50-foot-wide polished black granite surface. It was dedicated in 1991 and since has been designated a National Memorial by Congress.

Through the Center for Space Education, AMF partners with NASA to provide space-related educational technology training to teachers and students to foster an understanding of space exploration, to improve education through technology and to improve the quality of the space industry workforce.

Image above: STS-51L crew members pose during a break in countdown training in the White Room at Launch Pad 39B in November of 1985. From the left are Christa McAuliffe; Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik, Francis "Dick" Scobee, Ronald McNair, Mike Smith and Ellison Onizuka. Image Credit: NASA.

The STS-51L crew of Challenger included the first Teacher-in-Space participant, Christa McAuliffe, a Concord, New Hampshire, high school instructor. Also aboard were Dick Scobee, Michael Smith, Judy Resnik, Ellison Onizuka and Ron McNair, along with payload specialist Greg Jarvis, an engineer with the Hughes Aircraft Company. After lifting off on Jan. 28, 1986, the crew perished when the vehicle exploded 73 seconds into the flight.

The STS-107 crew of the shuttle Columbia, Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Laurel Clark and Israeli Space Agency astronaut Ilan Ramon, were lost when the shuttle broke apart during re-entry on Feb. 1, 2003.

Image above: The STS-107 crewmembers strike a ‘flying’ pose for their traditional in-flight crew portrait in the SPACEHAB Research Double Module aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. Bottom row, from the left, are Kalpana Chawla, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon. Top row, from the left, are David Brown, William McCool,and Michael Anderson. Ramon represented the Israeli Space Agency. Image Credit: NASA.

Mike Adams, the first in-flight fatality of the space program, died as he piloted an X-15 rocket plane on Nov. 15, 1967. Robert Lawrence, Theodore Freeman, Elliott See, Charles Bassett, and Clifton Williams were lost in training accidents. Manley "Sonny" Carter died in a commercial aircraft crash while on NASA business.

Following the ceremony, a memorial wreath was placed at the Space Mirror Memorial by Sheryl Chaffee; Lowell Grissom, brother of Gus Grissom; Carly Sparks, granddaughter of Grissom; along with Bonnie White Baer, daughter of Ed White.

Image above: Following the Kennedy Space Center's NASA Day of Remembrance ceremony, a memorial wreath was placed at the Space Mirror Memorial by family members of the Apollo 1 crew. From the left, are Lowell Grissom, brother of Gus Grissom; Carly Sparks, granddaughter of Grissom; Bonnie White Baer, daughter of Ed White; and Sheryl Chaffee; daughter of Roger Chaffee. They are standing in front of the Space Mirror Memorial which includes the names of the fallen astronauts from Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia, as well as the astronauts who perished in training and commercial airplane accidents. The names are emblazoned on the monument's 45-foot-high-by-50-foot-wide polished black granite surface. Image Credits: NASA/Kim Shiflett.

Less than a month before the Apollo 1 accident, Gus Grissom completed the first draft manuscript for a book titled "Gemini" about the program that bridged Project Mercury to Apollo. On the last page, he wrote about the hazards of human spaceflight.

"There will be risks, as there are in any experimental program," he said. "But I hope the American people won't feel it's too high a price for our space program."

Related article:

The Lost Cosmonauts - "In Memoriam"
http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2011/12/lost-cosmonauts-in-memoriam.html

Related links:

Apollo 1: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo-1

STS-51L: https://www.nasa.gov/subject/3340/sts51l

STS-107: https://www.nasa.gov/subject/3308/sts107

NASA History: https://www.nasa.gov/topics/history/index.html

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA's Kennedy Space Center, by Bob Granath.

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