MUSE Probes Uncharted Depths of Hubble Ultra Deep Field

ESO - European Southern Observatory logo.

29 November 2017

Deepest ever spectroscopic survey completed

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field seen with MUSE

Astronomers using the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile have conducted the deepest spectroscopic survey ever. They focused on the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, measuring distances and properties of 1600 very faint galaxies including 72 galaxies that have never been detected before, even by Hubble itself. This groundbreaking dataset has already resulted in 10 science papers that are being published in a special issue of Astronomy & Astrophysics. This wealth of new information is giving astronomers insight into star formation in the early Universe, and allows them to study the motions and other properties of early galaxies — made possible by MUSE’s unique spectroscopic capabilities.

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2012

The MUSE HUDF Survey team, led by Roland Bacon of the Centre de recherche astrophysique de Lyon (CNRS/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1/ENS de Lyon), France, used MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) to observe the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (heic0406), a much-studied patch of the southern constellation of Fornax (The Furnace). This resulted in the deepest spectroscopic observations ever made; precise spectroscopic information was measured for 1600 galaxies, ten times as many galaxies as has been painstakingly obtained in this field over the last decade by ground-based telescopes.

Glowing haloes around distant galaxies

The original HUDF images were pioneering deep-field observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope published in 2004. They probed more deeply than ever before and revealed a menagerie of galaxies dating back to less than a billion years after the Big Bang. The area was subsequently observed many times by Hubble and other telescopes, resulting in the deepest view of the Universe to date [1]. Now, despite the depth of the Hubble observations, MUSE has — among many other results — revealed 72 galaxies never seen before in this very tiny area of the sky.

Roland Bacon takes up the story: “MUSE can do something that Hubble can’t — it splits up the light from every point in the image into its component colours to create a spectrum. This allows us to measure the distance, colours and other properties of all the galaxies we can see — including some that are invisible to Hubble itself.”

Zooming into the MUSE view of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field

The MUSE data provides a new view of dim, very distant galaxies, seen near the beginning of the Universe about 13 billion years ago. It has detected galaxies 100 times fainter than in previous surveys, adding to an already richly observed field and deepening our understanding of galaxies across the ages.

The survey unearthed 72 candidate galaxies known as Lyman-alpha emitters that shine only in Lyman-alpha light [2]. Current understanding of star formation cannot fully explain these galaxies, which just seem to shine brightly in this one colour. Because MUSE disperses the light into its component colours these objects become apparent, but they remain invisible in deep direct images such as those from Hubble.

Panning across the MUSE view of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field

“MUSE has the unique ability to extract information about some of the earliest galaxies in the Universe — even in a part of the sky that is already very well studied,” explains Jarle Brinchmann, lead author of one of the papers describing results from this survey, from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences at CAUP in Porto, Portugal. “We learn things about these galaxies that is only possible with spectroscopy, such as chemical content and internal motions — not galaxy by galaxy but all at once for all the galaxies!”

Flying through the MUSE view of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field

Another major finding of this study was the systematic detection of luminous hydrogen halos around galaxies in the early Universe, giving astronomers a new and promising way to study how material flows in and out of early galaxies.

MUSE charts distances in the Hubble Ultra Dee Field

Many other potential applications of this dataset are explored in the series of papers, and they include studying the role of faint galaxies during cosmic reionisation (starting just 380 000 years after the Big Bang), galaxy merger rates when the Universe was young, galactic winds, star formation as well as mapping the motions of stars in the early Universe.

MUSE reveals glowing haloes around distant galaxies

“Remarkably, these data were all taken without the use of MUSE’s recent Adaptive Optics Facility upgrade. The activation of the AOF after a decade of intensive work by ESO’s astronomers and engineers promises yet more revolutionary data in the future,” concludes Roland Bacon [3].

Notes:

[1] The Hubble Ultra Deep Field is one of the most extensively studied areas of space. To date, 13 instruments on eight telescopes, including the ESO-partnered ALMA (eso1633), have observed the field from X-ray to radio wavelengths.

[2] The negatively-charged electrons that orbit the positively-charged nucleus in an atom have quantised energy levels. That is, they can only exist in specific energy states, and they can only transition between them by gaining or losing precise amounts of energy. Lyman-alpha radiation is produced when electrons in hydrogen atoms drop from the second-lowest to the lowest energy level. The precise amount of energy lost is released as light with a particular wavelength in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum, which astronomers can detect with space telescopes or on Earth in the case of redshifted objects. For this data, at redshift of z ~ 3–6.6, the Lyman-alpha light is seen as visible or near-infrared light.

[3] The Adaptive Optics Facility with MUSE has already revealed previously unseen rings around the planetary nebula IC 4406 (eso1724).

More information:

This research was presented in a series of 10 papers to appear in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The teams are composed of Roland Bacon (CRAL - CNRS, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France), Hanae Inami (CRAL - CNRS, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France), Jarle Brinchmann (Leiden Observatory, Leiden, the Netherlands; Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Porto, Portugal), Michael Maseda (Leiden Observatory, Leiden, the Netherlands), Adrien Guerou (IRAP, CNRS, Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier, CNES, Université de Toulouse, France; ESO, Garching, Germany), A. B. Drake (CRAL - CNRS, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France), H. Finley (IRAP, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France), F. Leclercq (University of Lyon, Lyon, France), E. Ventou (IRAP, CNRS, Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier, CNES Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France), T. Hashimoto (University of Lyon, Lyon, France), Simon Conseil (CRAL - CNRS, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon Université de Lyon, Lyon, France), David Mary (Laboratoire Lagrange, CNRS, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, Université de Nice, Nice, France), Martin Shepherd (University of Lyon, Lyon, France), Mohammad Akhlaghi (CRAL - CNRS, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon Université de Lyon, Lyon, France), Peter M. Weilbacher (Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Postdam, Postdam, Germany), Laure Piqueras (CRAL - CNRS, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon Université de Lyon, Lyon, France), Lutz Wisotzki (Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany), David Lagattuta (CRAL - CNRS, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon Université de Lyon, Lyon, France), Benoit Epinat (IRAP, CNRS, Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier, CNES, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France; and LAM, CNRS / Aix Marseille Université, Marseille, France), Sebastiano Cantalupo (ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland), Jean Baptiste Courbot (University of Lyon, Lyon, France; ICube, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France), Thierry Contini (IRAP, CNRS, Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier, CNES Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France), Johan Richard (CRAL - CNRS, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon Université de Lyon, Lyon, France), Rychard Bouwens (Leiden Observatory, Leiden, the Netherlands), Nicolas Bouché (IRAP, CNRS, Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier, CNES Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France), Wolfram Kollatschny (AIG, Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany), Joop Schaye (Leiden Observatory, Leiden, the Netherlands), Raffaella Anna Marino (ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland), Roser Pello (IRAP, CNRS, Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier, CNES Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France), Bruno Guiderdoni (CRAL - CNRS, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon Université de Lyon, Lyon, France), Marcella Carollo (ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland), S. Hamer (University of Lyon, Lyon, France), B. Clément (University of Lyon, Lyon, France), G. Desprez (University of Lyon, Lyon, France), L. Michel-Dansac (CRAL - CNRS, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon Université de Lyon, Lyon, France), M. Paalvast (Leiden Observatory, Leiden, the Netherlands), L. Tresse (CRAL - CNRS, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon Université de Lyon, Lyon, France), L. A. Boogaard (Leiden Observatory, Leiden, the Netherlands), J. Chevallard (Scientific Support Office, ESA/ESTEC, Noordwijk, the Netherlands) S. Charlot (Sorbonne University, Paris, France), J. Verhamme (University of Lyon, Lyon, France), Marijn Franx (Leiden Observatory, Leiden, the Netherlands), Kasper B. Schmidt (Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany), Anna Feltre (CRAL - CNRS, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon Université de Lyon, Lyon, France), Davor Krajnović (Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany), Eric Emsellem (ESO, Garching, Germany; University of Lyon, Lyon, France), Mark den Brok (ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland), Santiago Erroz-Ferrer (ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland), Peter Mitchell (CRAL - CNRS, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon Université de Lyon, Lyon, France), Thibault Garel (University of Lyon, Lyon, France), Jeremy Blaizot (CRAL - CNRS, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon Université de Lyon, Lyon, France), Edmund Christian Herenz (Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden), D. Lam (Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands), M. Steinmetz (Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany) and J. Lewis (University of Lyon, Lyon, France).

ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile and by Australia as a strategic partner. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world’s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is a major partner in ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre Extremely Large Telescope, the ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

Links:

- MUSE HUDF Special Issue in A&A
https://www.aanda.org/component/toc/?task=topic&id=868

- “The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey: I. Survey description, data reduction and source detection” by R. Bacon et al.
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1738/eso1738a.pdf

- “The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey: II. Spectroscopic Redshift and Line Flux Catalog, and Comparisons to Color Selections of Galaxies at 3 < z < 7” by H. Inami et al.
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1738/eso1738b.pdf

- “The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey: III. Testing photometric redshifts to 30th magnitude” by J. Brinchmann et al.
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1738/eso1738c.pdf

- “The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey: IV. An Overview of C III] Emitters” by M. V. Maseda et al.
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1738/eso1738d.pdf

- “The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey: V. Spatially resolved stellar kinematics of galaxies at redshift 0.2 ≲ z ≲ 0.8” b A. Guérou
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1738/eso1738e.pdf

- “The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey: VI. The Faint-End of the Lyα Luminosity Function at 2.91 < z < 6.64 and Implications for Reionisation” by A. B. Drake et al.
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1738/eso1738f.pdf

- “The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey:VII. Fe II* Emission in Star-Forming Galaxies” by H. Finley et al.
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1738/eso1738g.pdf

- “The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey: VIII. Extended Lyman α haloes” by F. Leclercq et al.
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1738/eso1738h.pdf

- “The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey: IX. evolution of galaxy merger fraction up to z ≈ 6” by E. Ventou et al.
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1738/eso1738h.pdf

- “The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey: X. Lyα Equivalent Widths at 2.9 < z < 6.6” by T. Hashimoto et al.
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1738/eso1738j.pdf

- MUSE
https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/vlt-instr/muse/

- MUSE and the Adaptive Optics Facility (eso1724)
https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1724/

ESOcast 140 Light: MUSE Dives into the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: http://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1738a/

Images, Videos, Text, Credits: (mentioned on "more information") ESO/Richard Hook/Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie France/Thierry Contini/Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam/Davor Krajnovic/University of Leiden/Jarle Brinchmann/Lyon Centre for Astrophysics Research (CRAL)/Roland Bacon.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Satellite misses target, Roscosmos loses track

ROSCOSMOS logo.

Nov 28, 2017

Russia launched on Tuesday a second Soyuz rocket from its new Vostochny cosmodrome. But the rest of the mission did not go as planned.

The rocket - whose takeoff was broadcast live on television - took off as planned at 14:41 local (6:41 in Switzerland). (Photo: Roscosmos)

The Russian space agency announced Tuesday that it has lost contact with the Meteor weather satellite, launched a few hours earlier from the new Vostochny Cosmodrome, inaugurated in April 2016 in the Far East of the country.

"The contact with the spacecraft has not been established due to the fact that it has not reached the planned orbit," said Roskosmos in a statement, saying that the reasons for this failure were under way. 'analysis.

Gigantic cost

The rocket - whose takeoff was broadcast live on television - took off as planned at 14:41 local (6:41 in Switzerland). It carried, among other things, a Meteor weather satellite, as well as 18 payloads belonging to institutions or companies in Canada, the United States, Japan, Germany, Sweden and Norway. "All the initial stages of the rocket flight went as planned," the Russian space agency Roskosmos said in a statement.

 METEOR-M №2-1 Satellite

The first take-off from the Vostochny base in April 2016, in the presence of President Vladimir Putin, was a first success for this gigantic cost-packed cosmodrome, intended to replace the legendary Baikonur base in Kazakhstan, which is supposed to mark the rebirth of a industry humiliated by several failures in recent years.

The third launch from this cosmodrome is scheduled for December 22nd.

Second Launch

Vostotchny, built on the site of a former Soviet missile base, is closer to the equator than the firing point of Plessetsk in northern Russia, a parameter that facilitates the setting in orbit.

Currently, he has a firing point for the Soyuz ships. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the Russian space program, said he wants to build a second firing point for the new Angara rockets, which should be ready in 2021.

The Russian space sector experienced a series of failures in 2015, including the loss of a Progress cargo ship to refuel the ISS in April and the failure of a Proton launcher to orbit a Mexican communications satellite. in May.

Related article:

ROSCOSMOS - Soyuz-2.1B Launch Vehicle With METEOR-M №2-1 Satellite Successfully Lifts Off fro Vostochny
http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2017/11/roscosmos-soyuz-21b-launch-vehicle-with.html

Roscosmos Press Release: http://en.roscosmos.ru/20704/

Images, Text, Credits: AFP/ROSCOSMOS/Günter Space Page/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Station Being Configured for Cargo and Crew Missions

ISS - Expedition 53 Mission patch.

Nov. 28, 2017

International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: NASA

The Expedition 53 crew is configuring the orbital complex for a pair of cargo missions and a crew swap in December. Two colorful soccer ball-sized satellites were also floating around inside the International Space Station being tested today.

SpaceX has announced it is now targeting Dec. 8 for the launch of its Dragon cargo craft to the space station’s Harmony module. Among the variety of crew supplies and research gear Dragon will deliver are mice to be observed for the Rodent Research-6 muscle drug study. 20 mice will be housed in a rodent habitat that Vande Hei is configuring today in the U.S. Destiny laboratory.

Orbital ATK pushed back the release of its Cygnus resupply ship from the Unity module to Dec. 6 after the SpaceX announcement. Flight Engineers Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei are preparing for the departure this week loading Cygnus with trash and training for its robotic release.

Image above: This nighttime shot shows the northeast coast of the United States from New Jersey up to Maine and the well-lit urban metropolitan areas of New York City and Boston along with parts of southern Canada including Montreal. Image Credit: NASA.

Finally, the station is set to slightly raise its orbit Wednesday enabling a crew swap set to begin Dec. 14 when Expedition 52-53 crew members Randy Bresnik, Sergey Ryazanskiy and Paolo Nespoli return to Earth. They will be replaced Dec. 19 when Expedition 54-55 crew members Anton Shkaplerov, Scott Tingle and Norishige Kanai dock to the Rassvet module two days after their launch from Kazakhstan.

Acaba and cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin were inside the Kibo laboratory module today testing a pair of tiny satellites better known as SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites). The SPHERES can be pre-programmed on Earth using algorithms to conduct a series of maneuvers demonstrating formation flying or rendezvous and docking techniques. Teams of high school students will be competing in January to see who can design the best maneuvering algorithms for the SPHERES on the station.

Related links:

Expedition 53: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition53/index.html

Rodent Research-6: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7423

SPHERES: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=679

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

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

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA Builds its Next Mars Rover Mission

NASA - Mars 2020 Rover logo.

Nov. 28, 2017

NASA Begins Building Next Mars Rover Mission

Video above: In just a couple of years, NASA’s newest rover will be flying to Mars. The Mars 2020 mission will use the next generation of science and landing technology to collect rock samples for possible return by a future mission.

In just a few years, NASA's next Mars rover mission will be flying to the Red Planet.

At a glance, it looks a lot like its predecessor, the Curiosity Mars rover. But there's no doubt it's a souped-up science machine: It has seven new instruments, redesigned wheels and more autonomy. A drill will capture rock cores, while a caching system with a miniature robotic arm will seal up these samples. Then, they'll be deposited on the Martian surface for possible pickup by a future mission.

This new hardware is being developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, which manages the mission for the agency. It includes the Mars 2020 mission's cruise stage, which will fly the rover through space, and the descent stage, a rocket-powered "sky crane" that will lower it to the planet's surface. Both of these stages have recently moved into JPL's Spacecraft Assembly Facility.

Image above: This artist's rendition depicts NASA's Mars 2020 rover studying a Mars rock outrcrop. The mission will not only seek out and study an area likely to have been habitable in the distant past, but it will take the next, bold step in robotic exploration of the Red Planet by seeking signs of past microbial life itself. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Mars 2020 relies heavily on the system designs and spare hardware previously created for Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity rover, which landed in 2012. Roughly 85 percent of the new rover's mass is based on this "heritage hardware."

"The fact that so much of the hardware has already been designed -- or even already exists -- is a major advantage for this mission," said Jim Watzin, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program. "It saves us money, time and most of all, reduces risk."

Despite its similarities to Mars Science Laboratory, the new mission has very different goals. Mars 2020's instruments will seek signs of ancient life by studying terrain that is now inhospitable, but once held flowing rivers and lakes, more than 3.5 billion years ago.

To achieve these new goals, the rover has a suite of cutting-edge science instruments. It will seek out biosignatures on a microbial scale: An X-ray spectrometer will target spots as small as a grain of table salt, while an ultraviolet laser will detect the "glow" from excited rings of carbon atoms. A ground-penetrating radar will be the first instrument to look under the surface of Mars, mapping layers of rock, water and ice up to 30 feet (10 meters) deep, depending on the material.

Image above: This artist's concept depicts NASA's Mars 2020 rover exploring Mars. The mission will not only seek out and study an area likely to have been habitable in the distant past, but it will take the next, bold step in robotic exploration of the Red Planet by seeking signs of past microbial life itself. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

The rover is getting some upgraded Curiosity hardware, including color cameras, a zoom lens and a laser that can vaporize rocks and soil to analyze their chemistry.

"Our next instruments will build on the success of MSL, which was a proving ground for new technology," said George Tahu, NASA's Mars 2020 program executive. "These will gather science data in ways that weren't possible before."

The mission will also undertake a marathon sample hunt: The rover team will try to drill at least 20 rock cores, and possibly as many as 30 or 40, for possible future return to Earth.

"Whether life ever existed beyond Earth is one of the grand questions humans seek to answer," said Ken Farley of JPL, Mars 2020's project scientist. "What we learn from the samples collected during this mission has the potential to address whether we're alone in the universe."

JPL is also developing a crucial new landing technology called terrain-relative navigation. As the descent stage approaches the Martian surface, it will use computer vision to compare the landscape with pre-loaded terrain maps. This technology will guide the descent stage to safe landing sites, correcting its course along the way.

A related technology called the range trigger will use location and velocity to determine when to fire the spacecraft's parachute. That change will narrow the landing ellipse by more than 50 percent.

"Terrain-relative navigation enables us to go to sites that were ruled too risky for Curiosity to explore," said Al Chen of JPL, the Mars 2020 entry, descent and landing lead. "The range trigger lets us land closer to areas of scientific interest, shaving miles -- potentially as much as a year -- off a rover's journey."

This approach to minimizing landing errors will be critical in guiding any future mission dedicated to retrieving the Mars 2020 samples, Chen said.

Site selection has been another milestone for the mission. In February, the science community narrowed the list of potential landing sites from eight to three. Those three remaining sites represent fundamentally different environments that could have harbored primitive life: an ancient lakebed called Jezero Crater; Northeast Syrtis, where warm waters may have chemically interacted with subsurface rocks; and a possible hot springs at Columbia Hills.

All three sites have rich geology and may potentially harbor signs of past microbial life. A final landing site decision is still more than a year away.

"In the coming years, the 2020 science team will be weighing the advantages and disadvantages of each of these sites," Farley said. "It is by far the most important decision we have ahead of us."

Mars 2020 Rover: http://www.nasa.gov/mars2020

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

Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA/Tony Greicius/JPL/Andrew Good.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA Begins Checkout of Dellingr Spacecraft Designed to Improve Robustness of CubeSat Platforms

ISS - International Space Station patch.

Nov. 28, 2017

NASA ground controllers have begun checking out and commissioning a shoebox-sized spacecraft that the agency purposely built to show that CubeSat platforms could be cost-effective, reliable, and capable of gathering highly robust science.

The Dellingr spacecraft will begin science operations once ground controllers complete checkout, which began a few hours after the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer aboard the International Space Station released the CubeSat into its low-Earth orbit Nov. 20.

“We’re ready to start demonstrating Dellingr’s capabilities,” said Michael Johnson, chief technologist of the Applied Engineering and Technology Directorate at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. He was instrumental in pulling together a small team of scientists and engineers charged with developing the low-cost platform within a relatively short period of time, especially compared with larger, more traditional spacecraft.

Image above: This is the Dellingr spacecraft right before its release. NASA specifically developed this spacecraft to provide high-quality science data on a small platform. Image Credits: Nanoracks/Larry Kepko.

“We believe Dellingr will inaugurate a new era for scientists wanting to use small, highly reliable satellites to carry out important, and in some cases, never-before-tried science,” Johnson added.

Dellingr, named after the mythological Norse god of the dawn, was designed to not only demonstrate the vigor of its design, but also gather high-quality data about the Sun’s influence on Earth’s upper atmosphere using a suite of miniaturized instruments and components.

Originally created in 1999 by the California Polytechnic State University, the CubeSat concept has grown in popularity among scientists because of its low-cost and promise to allow never-before-tried observing techniques. Constellations of many spacecraft are a mission architecture enabled by CubeSats.  Instead of flying missions comprised of single spacecraft, scientists saw the potential for flying constellations of these tiny spacecraft around Earth or other solar bodies to perform simultaneous, multi-point observations — a measurement technique not financially feasible with larger, more traditional spacecraft.

Although the platform offers great potential, historically CubeSat missions have exhibited a success rate of about 50 percent, Johnson added.

Image above: This image shows the release of the Dellingr spacecraft, which NASA specifically developed to provide high-quality science data on a small platform. Image Credits: Nanoracks/Larry Kepko.

Johnson and the Dellingr team wanted to alter the perception of CubeSats as unreliable science platforms and in 2014 began their pathfinder project. The team implemented systems-development approaches that would assure a reliable, yet cost-efficient satellite that not only delivered compelling science, but also changed the CubeSat paradigm.

The spacecraft carries three heliophysics-related instruments, including the Ion-Neutral Mass Spectrometer that will sample the densities of neutral and ionized atom species in the atmosphere, and two miniaturized magnetometer systems to measure Earth’s magnetic fields. Dellingr also carries a miniaturized device for deploying one of the magnetometers and its UHF antenna as well as a fine sun sensor that will orient the instrument to the Sun. A new thermal-control technology used to regulate spacecraft temperatures also will be demonstrated.

Although in orbit now for only eight days, Dellingr already is a success story, Johnson said. The lessons learned from the Dellingr project are being infused in current and future missions, including the recently awarded PetitSat, leading to enhanced science return, and increasing the reliability of this revolutionary platform.

For more Goddard technology news, visit https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/fall_2017_final_lowrez.pdf

CubeSats: http://www.nasa.gov/cubesats/

Small Satellite Missions: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats

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

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Lynn Jenner/Goddard Space Flight Center, by Lori J. Keesey.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

ROSCOSMOS - Soyuz-2.1B Launch Vehicle With METEOR-M №2-1 Satellite Successfully Lifts Off fro Vostochny

ROSCOSMOS logo.

November 28, 2017

On November 28, 2017 at 08:41 Moscow time, Soyuz-2.1b lifted off from Vostochny Cosmodrome.

The launch mission is to deliver an Earth observation Meteor-M № 2-1 satellite, an Earth observation Baumanets-2 satellite and 17 smallsats piggybacked under the federal and commercial contracts of Glavkosmos to their target orbits.

The launch of the Soyuz-2.1b ILV with the Meteor-M spacecraft No. 2-1

According the flight program, the first three stages of Soyuz-2.1b have taken the ascent unit into low orbit just short of nine minutes and twenty-three seconds after liftoff. From this point in the mission, the Fregat performs planned mission maneuvers to advance the satellites to their planned orbits.

METEOR-M №2-1 Satellite

Separation of the Meteor-M satellite is scheduled to occur approximately 1 hour after lift-off.

Roscosmos Press Release: http://en.roscosmos.ru/20703/

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

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Cygnus Departure Preps as Muscle Study and CubeSat Ops Wrap Up

ISS - Expedition 53 Mission patch.

November 27, 2017

International Space Station (ISS). Image Credit: NASA

The Cygnus resupply ship is in its final week at the International Space Station and two astronauts are training for its departure on Monday. Meanwhile, a leg muscle study and CubeSat deployment operations are wrapping up today.

Cygnus is now being filled with trash after delivering close to 7,400 pounds of research and supplies to the Expedition 53 crew on Nov. 14. NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba are training to release Cygnus from the Canadarm2 next week following a 20-day stay at the Unity module.

The duo will be inside the cupola commanding the Canadarm2 to release Cygnus back into Earth orbit on Dec. 4. Following its departure from the station, Cygnus will stay in orbit until Dec. 18 before re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere for a fiery demise over the Pacific Ocean.

Image above: New York City and part of the state of New Jersey are pictured in this photograph taken during a night pass on Nov. 23, 2017. Image Credit: NASA.

Commander Randy Bresnik and cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy are completing a final run of the Sarcolab-3 experiment today. That research is observing how leg muscles adapt to microgravity using magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound devices.

Finally, a satellite deployer that ejected a set of CubeSats last week, has been brought back inside the Kibo lab module. One of the CubeSats deployed, the EcAMSat that was delivered aboard Cygnus, is now orbiting Earth researching how the E. coli pathogen reacts to antibiotics in space.

Related article:

NASA to Test Advanced Space Wireless Network and Device for Returning Small Spacecraft to Earth
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2017/11/nasa-to-test-advanced-space-wireless.html

Related links:

Expedition 53: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition53/index.html

CubeSat: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cubesats/index.html

EcAMSat: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/engineering/projects/ecamsat

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

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

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