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New, Ultrathin Optical Devices Shape Light in Exotic Ways
New, Ultrathin Optical Devices Shape Light in Exotic Ways | NASA
This schematic drawing shows how a "metasurface" can generate and focus radially polarized light.
Credits: Amir Arbabi/Faraon Lab/Caltech
Researchers have developed innovative flat, optical lenses as part of a collaboration between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology, both in Pasadena, California. These optical components are capable of manipulating light in ways that are difficult or impossible to achieve with conventional optical devices.
The new lenses are not made of glass. Instead, silicon nanopillars are precisely arranged into a honeycomb pattern to create a "metasurface" that can control the paths and properties of passing light waves.
Applications of these devices include advanced microscopes, displays, sensors, and cameras that can be mass-produced using the same techniques used to manufacture computer microchips.
"These flat lenses will help us to make more compact and robust imaging assemblies," said Mahmood Bagheri, a microdevices engineer at JPL and co-author of a new Nature Nanotechnology study describing the devices.
"Currently, optical systems are made one component at a time, and the components are often manually assembled," said Andrei Faraon, an assistant professor of applied physics and materials science at Caltech, and the study's principal investigator. "But this new technology is very similar to the one used to print semiconductor chips onto silicon wafers, so you could conceivably manufacture millions of systems such as microscopes or cameras at a time."
Seen under a scanning electron microscope, the new metasurfaces that the researchers created resemble a cut forest where only the stumps remain. Each silicon stump, or pillar, has an elliptical cross section, and by carefully varying the diameters of each pillar and rotating them around their axes, the scientists were able to simultaneously manipulate the phase and polarization of passing light.
Phase has to do with the separation between peaks of light waves; light waves in phase with each other combine to produce a single, more powerful wave. Manipulating its phase influences the degree to which a light ray bends, which in turn influences whether an image is in or out of focus. Polarization refers to the way some light waves vibrate only in a particular direction, whereas waves in natural sunlight vibrate in all directions. Manipulating the polarization of light is essential for the operation of advanced microscopes, cameras and displays; the control of polarization also enables simple gadgets such as 3-D glasses and polarized sunglasses.
"If you think of a modern microscope, it has multiple components that have to be carefully assembled inside," Faraon says. "But with our platform, we can actually make each of these optical components and stack them atop one another very easily using an automated process. Each component is just a millionth of a meter thick, or less than a hundredth of the thickness of a human hair. "
Additionally, the new, flat lenses can be used to modify the shape of light beams at will. Semiconductor lasers typically emit into elliptical beams that are really hard to work with, and the new metasurface optical components could replace expensive optical systems used to circularize the beams. The small size of these devices would also allow for more compact systems.
The team is currently working with industrial partners to create metasurfaces for use in commercial devices such as miniature cameras and spectrometers, but a limited number have already been produced for use in optical experiments by collaborating scientists in other disciplines.
The current work was supported by the Caltech/JPL President's and Director's Fund and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Yu Horie was supported by the Department of Energy's Energy Frontier Research Center program and a Japan Student Services Organization fellowship. The device nanofabrication was performed in the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech. JPL is a division of Caltech.
This is Exactly What New Horizons saw Zipping by Pluto
When the New Horizons spacecraft raced past Pluto this summer, it constantly snapped photographs both coming and going. This is exactly what it saw while zooming past the frozen dwarf planet. Whoa.
We’ve seen fan-art of what the probe might have seen in a simulation interpolated from public image releases. But now NASA is providing their version of what it would be like to hitch a ride on the spacecraft as it skedaddled through the system. New Horizons skimmed just 12,500 kilometers (7,800 miles) over Pluto at roughly 14.5 kilometers per second (32,435 miles per hour), a multi-year journey culminating in just a few days of data. From Charon tugging Pluto around its orbit, soaring over the frozen plains of Tombaugh Regio, to the glow of the nightsidebefore finally fading into a crescent, the spacecraft’s journey is summed up in just one word: gorgeous.
The New Horizons probe is alive and well, scooting out to keep exploring the Kuiper Belt. Image releases will resume this September, with new data downlinking throughout 2016 for even morediscoveries. The spacecraft will be making orbital corrections this fall to redirect to its next target, the tiny 2014 Mu69.
New, Ultrathin Optical Devices Shape Light in Exotic Ways | NASA
This schematic drawing shows how a "metasurface" can generate and focus radially polarized light.
Credits: Amir Arbabi/Faraon Lab/Caltech
Researchers have developed innovative flat, optical lenses as part of a collaboration between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology, both in Pasadena, California. These optical components are capable of manipulating light in ways that are difficult or impossible to achieve with conventional optical devices.
The new lenses are not made of glass. Instead, silicon nanopillars are precisely arranged into a honeycomb pattern to create a "metasurface" that can control the paths and properties of passing light waves.
Applications of these devices include advanced microscopes, displays, sensors, and cameras that can be mass-produced using the same techniques used to manufacture computer microchips.
"These flat lenses will help us to make more compact and robust imaging assemblies," said Mahmood Bagheri, a microdevices engineer at JPL and co-author of a new Nature Nanotechnology study describing the devices.
"Currently, optical systems are made one component at a time, and the components are often manually assembled," said Andrei Faraon, an assistant professor of applied physics and materials science at Caltech, and the study's principal investigator. "But this new technology is very similar to the one used to print semiconductor chips onto silicon wafers, so you could conceivably manufacture millions of systems such as microscopes or cameras at a time."
Seen under a scanning electron microscope, the new metasurfaces that the researchers created resemble a cut forest where only the stumps remain. Each silicon stump, or pillar, has an elliptical cross section, and by carefully varying the diameters of each pillar and rotating them around their axes, the scientists were able to simultaneously manipulate the phase and polarization of passing light.
Phase has to do with the separation between peaks of light waves; light waves in phase with each other combine to produce a single, more powerful wave. Manipulating its phase influences the degree to which a light ray bends, which in turn influences whether an image is in or out of focus. Polarization refers to the way some light waves vibrate only in a particular direction, whereas waves in natural sunlight vibrate in all directions. Manipulating the polarization of light is essential for the operation of advanced microscopes, cameras and displays; the control of polarization also enables simple gadgets such as 3-D glasses and polarized sunglasses.
"If you think of a modern microscope, it has multiple components that have to be carefully assembled inside," Faraon says. "But with our platform, we can actually make each of these optical components and stack them atop one another very easily using an automated process. Each component is just a millionth of a meter thick, or less than a hundredth of the thickness of a human hair. "
Additionally, the new, flat lenses can be used to modify the shape of light beams at will. Semiconductor lasers typically emit into elliptical beams that are really hard to work with, and the new metasurface optical components could replace expensive optical systems used to circularize the beams. The small size of these devices would also allow for more compact systems.
The team is currently working with industrial partners to create metasurfaces for use in commercial devices such as miniature cameras and spectrometers, but a limited number have already been produced for use in optical experiments by collaborating scientists in other disciplines.
The current work was supported by the Caltech/JPL President's and Director's Fund and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Yu Horie was supported by the Department of Energy's Energy Frontier Research Center program and a Japan Student Services Organization fellowship. The device nanofabrication was performed in the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech. JPL is a division of Caltech.
This is Exactly What New Horizons saw Zipping by Pluto
When the New Horizons spacecraft raced past Pluto this summer, it constantly snapped photographs both coming and going. This is exactly what it saw while zooming past the frozen dwarf planet. Whoa.
We’ve seen fan-art of what the probe might have seen in a simulation interpolated from public image releases. But now NASA is providing their version of what it would be like to hitch a ride on the spacecraft as it skedaddled through the system. New Horizons skimmed just 12,500 kilometers (7,800 miles) over Pluto at roughly 14.5 kilometers per second (32,435 miles per hour), a multi-year journey culminating in just a few days of data. From Charon tugging Pluto around its orbit, soaring over the frozen plains of Tombaugh Regio, to the glow of the nightsidebefore finally fading into a crescent, the spacecraft’s journey is summed up in just one word: gorgeous.
The New Horizons probe is alive and well, scooting out to keep exploring the Kuiper Belt. Image releases will resume this September, with new data downlinking throughout 2016 for even morediscoveries. The spacecraft will be making orbital corrections this fall to redirect to its next target, the tiny 2014 Mu69.
Armstrong
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New, Ultrathin Optical Devices Shape Light in Exotic Ways
New, Ultrathin Optical Devices Shape Light in Exotic Ways | NASA
This schematic drawing shows how a "metasurface" can generate and focus radially polarized light.
Credits: Amir Arbabi/Faraon Lab/Caltech
Researchers have developed innovative flat, optical lenses as part of a collaboration between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology, both in Pasadena, California. These optical components are capable of manipulating light in ways that are difficult or impossible to achieve with conventional optical devices.
The new lenses are not made of glass. Instead, silicon nanopillars are precisely arranged into a honeycomb pattern to create a "metasurface" that can control the paths and properties of passing light waves.
Applications of these devices include advanced microscopes, displays, sensors, and cameras that can be mass-produced using the same techniques used to manufacture computer microchips.
"These flat lenses will help us to make more compact and robust imaging assemblies," said Mahmood Bagheri, a microdevices engineer at JPL and co-author of a new Nature Nanotechnology study describing the devices.
"Currently, optical systems are made one component at a time, and the components are often manually assembled," said Andrei Faraon, an assistant professor of applied physics and materials science at Caltech, and the study's principal investigator. "But this new technology is very similar to the one used to print semiconductor chips onto silicon wafers, so you could conceivably manufacture millions of systems such as microscopes or cameras at a time."
Seen under a scanning electron microscope, the new metasurfaces that the researchers created resemble a cut forest where only the stumps remain. Each silicon stump, or pillar, has an elliptical cross section, and by carefully varying the diameters of each pillar and rotating them around their axes, the scientists were able to simultaneously manipulate the phase and polarization of passing light.
Phase has to do with the separation between peaks of light waves; light waves in phase with each other combine to produce a single, more powerful wave. Manipulating its phase influences the degree to which a light ray bends, which in turn influences whether an image is in or out of focus. Polarization refers to the way some light waves vibrate only in a particular direction, whereas waves in natural sunlight vibrate in all directions. Manipulating the polarization of light is essential for the operation of advanced microscopes, cameras and displays; the control of polarization also enables simple gadgets such as 3-D glasses and polarized sunglasses.
"If you think of a modern microscope, it has multiple components that have to be carefully assembled inside," Faraon says. "But with our platform, we can actually make each of these optical components and stack them atop one another very easily using an automated process. Each component is just a millionth of a meter thick, or less than a hundredth of the thickness of a human hair. "
Additionally, the new, flat lenses can be used to modify the shape of light beams at will. Semiconductor lasers typically emit into elliptical beams that are really hard to work with, and the new metasurface optical components could replace expensive optical systems used to circularize the beams. The small size of these devices would also allow for more compact systems.
The team is currently working with industrial partners to create metasurfaces for use in commercial devices such as miniature cameras and spectrometers, but a limited number have already been produced for use in optical experiments by collaborating scientists in other disciplines.
The current work was supported by the Caltech/JPL President's and Director's Fund and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Yu Horie was supported by the Department of Energy's Energy Frontier Research Center program and a Japan Student Services Organization fellowship. The device nanofabrication was performed in the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech. JPL is a division of Caltech.
This is Exactly What New Horizons saw Zipping by Pluto
When the New Horizons spacecraft raced past Pluto this summer, it constantly snapped photographs both coming and going. This is exactly what it saw while zooming past the frozen dwarf planet. Whoa.
We’ve seen fan-art of what the probe might have seen in a simulation interpolated from public image releases. But now NASA is providing their version of what it would be like to hitch a ride on the spacecraft as it skedaddled through the system. New Horizons skimmed just 12,500 kilometers (7,800 miles) over Pluto at roughly 14.5 kilometers per second (32,435 miles per hour), a multi-year journey culminating in just a few days of data. From Charon tugging Pluto around its orbit, soaring over the frozen plains of Tombaugh Regio, to the glow of the nightsidebefore finally fading into a crescent, the spacecraft’s journey is summed up in just one word: gorgeous.
The New Horizons probe is alive and well, scooting out to keep exploring the Kuiper Belt. Image releases will resume this September, with new data downlinking throughout 2016 for even morediscoveries. The spacecraft will be making orbital corrections this fall to redirect to its next target, the tiny 2014 Mu69.
We're searching for alien life forms on other planets when we've got a certain Nordic nymph from heaven right here in our midst !
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I was talking about Sven !
Fenrir
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Fenrir
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Space Station Bio Includes a Bonanza of Biological Research
Space Station Bio Includes a Bonanza of Biological Research | NASA
The medaka fish is studied on the International Space Station to examine the impact of microgravity on its bones. Impacts to the medaka’s bones in microgravity may help scientists determine the reasoning for a decrease in astronaut bone density during spaceflight
Credits: Philipp Keller, Stelzer Group, EMBL
Flutter, slither, swim or crawl your way over to this month’s International Space Station look at biological research. We’ll be highlighting the study of life and the technology that supports this science throughout September. Researchers examine biological systems in space to understand the basic and complex mechanisms of life on Earth and to determine the best methods for keeping astronauts healthy during spaceflight.
Fruit flies, roundworms, medaka fish and rodents are a few examples of animals studied aboard the station. Scientists investigate model organisms like these because they are easy to reproduce and study in a laboratory, and can provide insight into the basic cellular and molecular mechanisms of the human body.
A fruit fly infected with fungus. Fruit flies that developed aboard the International Space Station showed weakened immunity to fungal infections post-spaceflight. Credits: Deborah Kimbrell
Biological studies aboard the space station also include research of cells, plants, genetics, biochemistry and human physiology, to name a few. This month, we’ll note the study of microbes, which can threaten crew health and jeopardize equipment aboard the space station. If scientists can understand how microbes behave in microgravity, the same techniques can be used to identify microbes in hospitals, pharmaceutical laboratories and other environments on Earth where microbe identification is crucial.
We’ll learn more about research on cells of the immune system in microgravity, something scientists are studying to better understand how human immune systems change as they age. Also in September, you can cheers the space station as we unveil how the study of plants in space can lead to air purification technology that keeps the air clean in wine cellars, and is also used in homes and medical facilities to help prevent mold.
NASA plans to grow food on future spacecraft and on other planets as a food supplement for astronauts. Fresh food, such as vegetables, provide essential vitamins and nutrients that will help enable sustainable deep space pioneering.
Credits: NASA
There are a plethora of plants in space, meaning there are a plethora of plant studies aboard the station at any given time. Last month, NASA astronauts sampled fresh romaine lettuce aboard the space station for the first time. BRIC hardware has supported a variety of plant growth investigations aboard the space station, including the BRIC-19 investigation, which looks at the growth and development of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings in microgravity. There are many other plant growth studies that examine A. thaliana in space, observing its reactions to light and the cellular processes that activate in the absence of gravity.
And finally, human physiology studies aboard the space station are paramount to enabling future exploration missions to an asteroid, Mars and beyond. NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly and Roscosmos Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will reach the midpoint of their One-Year Mission in September and help researchers gain valuable data about human health and the effects of microgravity on the body over a period twice as long as a typical U.S. mission. In addition, the Twins Study includes ten separate investigations of identical twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly that will provide insight into the subtle changes that may occur in spaceflight as compared to Earth by studying two individuals who have the same genetics, but are in different environments for one year.
Formulate the ‘logical’ conclusion and follow the ‘bio’ happening on the space station throughout September. We will keep you informed of how the study of life in space improves life on Earth and will one day sustain life during deep space missions and on Mars or other planets.
Space Station Bio Includes a Bonanza of Biological Research | NASA
The medaka fish is studied on the International Space Station to examine the impact of microgravity on its bones. Impacts to the medaka’s bones in microgravity may help scientists determine the reasoning for a decrease in astronaut bone density during spaceflight
Credits: Philipp Keller, Stelzer Group, EMBL
Flutter, slither, swim or crawl your way over to this month’s International Space Station look at biological research. We’ll be highlighting the study of life and the technology that supports this science throughout September. Researchers examine biological systems in space to understand the basic and complex mechanisms of life on Earth and to determine the best methods for keeping astronauts healthy during spaceflight.
Fruit flies, roundworms, medaka fish and rodents are a few examples of animals studied aboard the station. Scientists investigate model organisms like these because they are easy to reproduce and study in a laboratory, and can provide insight into the basic cellular and molecular mechanisms of the human body.
A fruit fly infected with fungus. Fruit flies that developed aboard the International Space Station showed weakened immunity to fungal infections post-spaceflight. Credits: Deborah Kimbrell
Biological studies aboard the space station also include research of cells, plants, genetics, biochemistry and human physiology, to name a few. This month, we’ll note the study of microbes, which can threaten crew health and jeopardize equipment aboard the space station. If scientists can understand how microbes behave in microgravity, the same techniques can be used to identify microbes in hospitals, pharmaceutical laboratories and other environments on Earth where microbe identification is crucial.
We’ll learn more about research on cells of the immune system in microgravity, something scientists are studying to better understand how human immune systems change as they age. Also in September, you can cheers the space station as we unveil how the study of plants in space can lead to air purification technology that keeps the air clean in wine cellars, and is also used in homes and medical facilities to help prevent mold.
NASA plans to grow food on future spacecraft and on other planets as a food supplement for astronauts. Fresh food, such as vegetables, provide essential vitamins and nutrients that will help enable sustainable deep space pioneering.
Credits: NASA
There are a plethora of plants in space, meaning there are a plethora of plant studies aboard the station at any given time. Last month, NASA astronauts sampled fresh romaine lettuce aboard the space station for the first time. BRIC hardware has supported a variety of plant growth investigations aboard the space station, including the BRIC-19 investigation, which looks at the growth and development of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings in microgravity. There are many other plant growth studies that examine A. thaliana in space, observing its reactions to light and the cellular processes that activate in the absence of gravity.
And finally, human physiology studies aboard the space station are paramount to enabling future exploration missions to an asteroid, Mars and beyond. NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly and Roscosmos Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will reach the midpoint of their One-Year Mission in September and help researchers gain valuable data about human health and the effects of microgravity on the body over a period twice as long as a typical U.S. mission. In addition, the Twins Study includes ten separate investigations of identical twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly that will provide insight into the subtle changes that may occur in spaceflight as compared to Earth by studying two individuals who have the same genetics, but are in different environments for one year.
Formulate the ‘logical’ conclusion and follow the ‘bio’ happening on the space station throughout September. We will keep you informed of how the study of life in space improves life on Earth and will one day sustain life during deep space missions and on Mars or other planets.
Fenrir
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NASA Teams Up With Hoverboard Company to Build a Magnetic "Tractor Beam"
When Arx Pax unveiled its “hoverboard” last year, we had a hunch that this was but the first demonstration of the company’s new magnetic field technology. Why was Arx Pax reallymessing around with magnets? For one, to build a tractor beam.
That’s right: Today, Arx Pax is announcing a new partnership with NASA, which wants to use hover engine technology to capture and manipulate micro-satellites. In other words, NASA and Arx Pax are going to try to create a magnetic tractor beam. A small one.
“NASA realized that this is a fundamental tool,” Arx Pax founder and CFO Greg Henderson told Gizmodo over the phone. “What we’re providing NASA is a way of manipulating objects in space without touching them.”
But let’s back up a quick sec. For those who don’t remember, Arx Pax made its debut with the unveiling of the Hendo Hoverboard in 2014. That device—yes, it can indeed hover off the ground—was the first application of the company’s patent-pending Magnetic Field Architecture (MFA) technology.
The principle behind the board is simple: A ‘hover engine’ generates swirls of electricity in a conductive surface to produce a concentrated magnetic field. That magnetic field induces an opposing field in a conductive material below—and voila, liftoff. (It’s really not that easy, companies have been trying and failing to do this for years.)
The Hendo Hoverboard was on some levels a success, but it was no Back to the Future. The thing only worked on a special metallic surface, it made loud, screechy noises, and its battery life was pretty bad. But it was clear that the device was really just a proof-of-concept, and that Arx Pax had bigger plans in mind for MFA—for instance, levitating houses to protect them from earthquake damage, or using magnetic fields to attract satellites to one another.
A CubeSat built at NASA’s Ames Research Center. Image Credit: NASA Ames
In a statement issued today, Arx Pax says it’ll be working with NASA “to design a device with the ability to attract one object to another from a distance.” At this stage, the focus will be on linking up CubeSats — those lightweight, 10 by 10 cm satellites that NASA and other researchers are using to monitor the Earth, and that we may eventually deploy to explore distant worlds.
“CubeSats are in close proximity already,” Henderson says. “We’re trying to figure out how do you link them together, connect them, and move them around relative to one another.”
Whether we’re studying our planet’s climate or exploring the surface of an asteroid, there are obvious benefits to a coordinated team of satellites. But we shouldn’t get too excited just yet, because details of the project are very sparse—we don’t, for instance, know how Arx Pax and NASA are hoping to power said “tractor beam,” or what sorts of ranges we might be able to achieve. Still, it seems like a worthy project, and hey, if we ever hope to build epic, tractor-beam wielding, galaxy-trotting spaceships, we’ve gotta start somewhere.
When Arx Pax unveiled its “hoverboard” last year, we had a hunch that this was but the first demonstration of the company’s new magnetic field technology. Why was Arx Pax reallymessing around with magnets? For one, to build a tractor beam.
That’s right: Today, Arx Pax is announcing a new partnership with NASA, which wants to use hover engine technology to capture and manipulate micro-satellites. In other words, NASA and Arx Pax are going to try to create a magnetic tractor beam. A small one.
“NASA realized that this is a fundamental tool,” Arx Pax founder and CFO Greg Henderson told Gizmodo over the phone. “What we’re providing NASA is a way of manipulating objects in space without touching them.”
But let’s back up a quick sec. For those who don’t remember, Arx Pax made its debut with the unveiling of the Hendo Hoverboard in 2014. That device—yes, it can indeed hover off the ground—was the first application of the company’s patent-pending Magnetic Field Architecture (MFA) technology.
The principle behind the board is simple: A ‘hover engine’ generates swirls of electricity in a conductive surface to produce a concentrated magnetic field. That magnetic field induces an opposing field in a conductive material below—and voila, liftoff. (It’s really not that easy, companies have been trying and failing to do this for years.)
The Hendo Hoverboard was on some levels a success, but it was no Back to the Future. The thing only worked on a special metallic surface, it made loud, screechy noises, and its battery life was pretty bad. But it was clear that the device was really just a proof-of-concept, and that Arx Pax had bigger plans in mind for MFA—for instance, levitating houses to protect them from earthquake damage, or using magnetic fields to attract satellites to one another.
A CubeSat built at NASA’s Ames Research Center. Image Credit: NASA Ames
In a statement issued today, Arx Pax says it’ll be working with NASA “to design a device with the ability to attract one object to another from a distance.” At this stage, the focus will be on linking up CubeSats — those lightweight, 10 by 10 cm satellites that NASA and other researchers are using to monitor the Earth, and that we may eventually deploy to explore distant worlds.
“CubeSats are in close proximity already,” Henderson says. “We’re trying to figure out how do you link them together, connect them, and move them around relative to one another.”
Whether we’re studying our planet’s climate or exploring the surface of an asteroid, there are obvious benefits to a coordinated team of satellites. But we shouldn’t get too excited just yet, because details of the project are very sparse—we don’t, for instance, know how Arx Pax and NASA are hoping to power said “tractor beam,” or what sorts of ranges we might be able to achieve. Still, it seems like a worthy project, and hey, if we ever hope to build epic, tractor-beam wielding, galaxy-trotting spaceships, we’ve gotta start somewhere.
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This Morning's AtlasV Launch Was Nothing Short of Stellar
Special atmospheric conditions created amazing views for today’s United Launch Alliance launch as an Atlas V rocket carrying MUOS-4, the fourth Mobile User Objective System satellite for the U.S. Navy was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral at 6:18 a.m. EDT, just before sunrise.
What you can see above is the atmospheric smoke trail the rocket left behind as usual, but for now it became visible from the ground too because the sun lit it at a special angle, from under the horizon, creating a multicolored glowing plume.
Special atmospheric conditions created amazing views for today’s United Launch Alliance launch as an Atlas V rocket carrying MUOS-4, the fourth Mobile User Objective System satellite for the U.S. Navy was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral at 6:18 a.m. EDT, just before sunrise.
What you can see above is the atmospheric smoke trail the rocket left behind as usual, but for now it became visible from the ground too because the sun lit it at a special angle, from under the horizon, creating a multicolored glowing plume.
Fenrir
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James Webb Space Telescope's ISIM Passes Severe-Sound Test
JWST's ISIM Passes Severe-Sound Test
A critical part of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope successfully completed acoustic testing during the week of Aug. 3. The Integrated Science Instrument Module, or ISIM, passed all of the "severe sound" tests that engineers put it through.
The Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) is one of three major elements that comprise the Webb Observatory flight system. The others are the Optical Telescope Element (OTE) and the Spacecraft Element (Spacecraft Bus and Sunshield).
The ISIM was subjected to the acoustic test at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The ISIM was tested at five different sound levels to demonstrate it could survive the noise and vibrations it will experience when the Webb telescope is launched in 2018 aboard an Ariane 5 rocket. The sound experienced during launch comes primarily from the solid rocket motors of the launch vehicle.
The ISIM structure wrapped up and waiting for sound testing in the acoustics chamber at NASA Goddard.
Credits: NASA/Desiree Stover
At Goddard, the engineers use the Acoustic Test Chamber, a 42-foot-tall chamber, with 6-foot-diameter speaker horns to replicate the launch environment. The horns use an altering flow of gaseous nitrogen to produce a sound level as high as 150 decibels for two-minute tests. That’s about the level of sound heard standing next to a jet engine during takeoff.
The 6-foot-wide horns in this 42-foot-tall chamber can produce noise at levels as high as 150 dB.
Credits: NASA/Chris Gunn
During the acoustics test, the speakers can still be heard outside of its insulated massive metal doors.
Following the acoustics test, the ISIM was pushed back into the Spacecraft Systems Development and Integration Facility (SSDIF) clean room so it could be un-bagged, and inspected. Once engineers made sure the ISIM passed the acoustics test, it was re-bagged and moved to the Electromagnetic Interference or EMI facility for electromagnetic interference testing.
The wrapped up ISIM structure pushed back to the clean room post acoustics-test, to prepare for the EMI test.
Credits: NASA/Desiree Stover
The ISIM is just one of the many Webb telescope components that continue to be tested as the observatory begins to come together this year.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the scientific successor to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. It will be the most powerful space telescope ever built. Webb is an international project led by NASA with its partners, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency
JWST's ISIM Passes Severe-Sound Test
A critical part of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope successfully completed acoustic testing during the week of Aug. 3. The Integrated Science Instrument Module, or ISIM, passed all of the "severe sound" tests that engineers put it through.
The Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) is one of three major elements that comprise the Webb Observatory flight system. The others are the Optical Telescope Element (OTE) and the Spacecraft Element (Spacecraft Bus and Sunshield).
The ISIM was subjected to the acoustic test at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The ISIM was tested at five different sound levels to demonstrate it could survive the noise and vibrations it will experience when the Webb telescope is launched in 2018 aboard an Ariane 5 rocket. The sound experienced during launch comes primarily from the solid rocket motors of the launch vehicle.
The ISIM structure wrapped up and waiting for sound testing in the acoustics chamber at NASA Goddard.
Credits: NASA/Desiree Stover
At Goddard, the engineers use the Acoustic Test Chamber, a 42-foot-tall chamber, with 6-foot-diameter speaker horns to replicate the launch environment. The horns use an altering flow of gaseous nitrogen to produce a sound level as high as 150 decibels for two-minute tests. That’s about the level of sound heard standing next to a jet engine during takeoff.
The 6-foot-wide horns in this 42-foot-tall chamber can produce noise at levels as high as 150 dB.
Credits: NASA/Chris Gunn
During the acoustics test, the speakers can still be heard outside of its insulated massive metal doors.
Following the acoustics test, the ISIM was pushed back into the Spacecraft Systems Development and Integration Facility (SSDIF) clean room so it could be un-bagged, and inspected. Once engineers made sure the ISIM passed the acoustics test, it was re-bagged and moved to the Electromagnetic Interference or EMI facility for electromagnetic interference testing.
The wrapped up ISIM structure pushed back to the clean room post acoustics-test, to prepare for the EMI test.
Credits: NASA/Desiree Stover
The ISIM is just one of the many Webb telescope components that continue to be tested as the observatory begins to come together this year.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the scientific successor to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. It will be the most powerful space telescope ever built. Webb is an international project led by NASA with its partners, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency
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The Heat Goes On as Engineers Start Analysis on SLS Base Heating Test Data
The Heat Goes On as Engineers Start Analysis on SLS Base Heating Test | NASA
Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, have successfully completed base heating testing on 2-percent scale models of the Space Launch System (SLS) propulsion system. SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever built for deep space missions, including to an asteroid placed in lunar orbit and ultimately to Mars. The SLS propulsion system uses two five-segment solid rocket boosters and four core stage RS-25 engines that burn liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Sixty-five hot-fire tests using the mini models provided data on the convective heating environments that the base of the rocket will experience during ascent. Engineers have many months ahead analyzing that data, which will be used to verify flight hardware design environments and set specifications for the design of the rocket's base thermal protection system. The thermal protection system at the base of the vehicle keeps major hardware, wiring and the crew safe from the extreme heat the boosters and engines create while burning on ascent. The models were designed, built and tested by Marshall engineers, in close collaboration with CUBRC Inc. of Buffalo, New York. Watch one of the tests.
Image Credit: NASA/MSFC
The Heat Goes On as Engineers Start Analysis on SLS Base Heating Test | NASA
Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, have successfully completed base heating testing on 2-percent scale models of the Space Launch System (SLS) propulsion system. SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever built for deep space missions, including to an asteroid placed in lunar orbit and ultimately to Mars. The SLS propulsion system uses two five-segment solid rocket boosters and four core stage RS-25 engines that burn liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Sixty-five hot-fire tests using the mini models provided data on the convective heating environments that the base of the rocket will experience during ascent. Engineers have many months ahead analyzing that data, which will be used to verify flight hardware design environments and set specifications for the design of the rocket's base thermal protection system. The thermal protection system at the base of the vehicle keeps major hardware, wiring and the crew safe from the extreme heat the boosters and engines create while burning on ascent. The models were designed, built and tested by Marshall engineers, in close collaboration with CUBRC Inc. of Buffalo, New York. Watch one of the tests.
Image Credit: NASA/MSFC
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NASA Soil Moisture Radar Ends Operations, Mission Science Continues
NASA Soil Moisture Radar Ends Operations, Mission Science Continues | NASA
NASA’s SMAP mission, launched in January to map global soil moisture and detect whether soils are frozen or thawed, continues to produce high-quality science measurements with one of its two instruments. Credits: NASA
Mission managers for NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory have determined that its radar, one of the satellite’s two science instruments, can no longer return data. However, the mission, which was launched in January to map global soil moisture and detect whether soils are frozen or thawed, continues to produce high-quality science measurements supporting SMAP’s objectives with its radiometer instrument.
The SMAP mission is designed to help scientists understand the links between Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles and enhance our ability to monitor and predict natural hazards like floods and droughts. SMAP remains an important data source to aid Earth system modeling and studies. SMAP data have additional practical applications, including improved weather forecasting and crop yield predictions.
The SMAP spacecraft continues normal operations and the first data release of soil moisture products is expected in late September.
"Although some of the planned applications of SMAP data will be impacted by the loss of the radar, the SMAP mission will continue to produce valuable science for important Earth system studies," said Dara Entekhabi, SMAP Science Team lead at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
On July 7, SMAP’s radar stopped transmitting due to an anomaly involving the radar's high-power amplifier (HPA). The HPA is designed to boost the power level of the radar's pulse to more than 500 watts, ensuring the energy scattered from Earth's surface can be accurately measured.
A three-day composite global map of surface soil moisture as retrieved from SMAP's radiometer instrument between Aug. 25-27, 2015.
Credits: NASA
The SMAP project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, formed an anomaly team to investigate the HPA issue and determine whether normal operation could be recovered. A series of diagnostic tests and procedures was performed on both the spacecraft and on the ground using flight spare parts.
Following an unsuccessful attempt on Aug. 24 to power up the radar unit, the project had exhausted all identified possible options for recovering nominal operation of the HPA and concluded the radar is likely not recoverable.
NASA has appointed a mishap investigation board to conduct a comprehensive review of the circumstances that led to the HPA anomaly in order to determine how the anomaly occurred and how such events can be prevented on future missions. JPL also will convene a separate failure review board that will work with the NASA investigation.
SMAP was launched Jan. 31 and began its science mission in April, releasing its first global maps of soil moisture on April 21. To date, the mission has collected more than four months of science data, almost three months with the radar operating. SMAP scientists plan to release beta-quality soil moisture data products at the end of September, with validated data planned for release in April 2016.
SMAP's radar allowed the mission's soil moisture and freeze-thaw measurements to be resolved to smaller regions of Earth – about 5.6 miles (9 kilometers) for soil moisture and 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) for freeze-thaw. Without the radar, the mission's resolving power will be limited to regions of almost 25 miles (40 kilometers) for soil moisture and freeze-thaw. The mission will continue to meet its requirements for soil moisture accuracy and will produce global soil moisture maps every two to three days.
SMAP’s active radar and passive radiometer instruments are designed to complement each other and mitigate the limitations of each measurement alone. The radar enabled high-resolution measurements of up to 1.9 miles, but with lower accuracy for sensing surface soil moisture. In contrast, the microwave radiometer is more accurate in its measurements but has lower resolution of about 25 miles. By combining the active and passive measurements, SMAP was designed to estimate soil moisture at a resolution of 5.6 miles.
Credits: NASA
The nearly three months of coincident measurements by the two instruments are a first of their kind. The combined data set allows scientists to assess the benefit of this type of combined measurement approach for future missions. Scientists now are developing algorithms to produce a freeze-thaw data product at 25-mile resolution from the radiometer data. They also are evaluating whether the 25-mile radiometer soil moisture resolution can be improved.
Based on the available SMAP mission data, scientists have identified other useful science measurements that can be derived from the radiometer data, such as sea surface salinity and high winds over the ocean surface. Over the next several months, the SMAP project and NASA will work to determine how to implement these new measurements into the project's data products.
SMAP is managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington by JPL, with instrument hardware and science contributions made by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. JPL built the spacecraft and is responsible for project management, system engineering, radar instrumentation, mission operations and the ground data system. Goddard is responsible for the radiometer instrument and science data products.
NASA Soil Moisture Radar Ends Operations, Mission Science Continues | NASA
NASA’s SMAP mission, launched in January to map global soil moisture and detect whether soils are frozen or thawed, continues to produce high-quality science measurements with one of its two instruments. Credits: NASA
Mission managers for NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory have determined that its radar, one of the satellite’s two science instruments, can no longer return data. However, the mission, which was launched in January to map global soil moisture and detect whether soils are frozen or thawed, continues to produce high-quality science measurements supporting SMAP’s objectives with its radiometer instrument.
The SMAP mission is designed to help scientists understand the links between Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles and enhance our ability to monitor and predict natural hazards like floods and droughts. SMAP remains an important data source to aid Earth system modeling and studies. SMAP data have additional practical applications, including improved weather forecasting and crop yield predictions.
The SMAP spacecraft continues normal operations and the first data release of soil moisture products is expected in late September.
"Although some of the planned applications of SMAP data will be impacted by the loss of the radar, the SMAP mission will continue to produce valuable science for important Earth system studies," said Dara Entekhabi, SMAP Science Team lead at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
On July 7, SMAP’s radar stopped transmitting due to an anomaly involving the radar's high-power amplifier (HPA). The HPA is designed to boost the power level of the radar's pulse to more than 500 watts, ensuring the energy scattered from Earth's surface can be accurately measured.
A three-day composite global map of surface soil moisture as retrieved from SMAP's radiometer instrument between Aug. 25-27, 2015.
Credits: NASA
The SMAP project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, formed an anomaly team to investigate the HPA issue and determine whether normal operation could be recovered. A series of diagnostic tests and procedures was performed on both the spacecraft and on the ground using flight spare parts.
Following an unsuccessful attempt on Aug. 24 to power up the radar unit, the project had exhausted all identified possible options for recovering nominal operation of the HPA and concluded the radar is likely not recoverable.
NASA has appointed a mishap investigation board to conduct a comprehensive review of the circumstances that led to the HPA anomaly in order to determine how the anomaly occurred and how such events can be prevented on future missions. JPL also will convene a separate failure review board that will work with the NASA investigation.
SMAP was launched Jan. 31 and began its science mission in April, releasing its first global maps of soil moisture on April 21. To date, the mission has collected more than four months of science data, almost three months with the radar operating. SMAP scientists plan to release beta-quality soil moisture data products at the end of September, with validated data planned for release in April 2016.
SMAP's radar allowed the mission's soil moisture and freeze-thaw measurements to be resolved to smaller regions of Earth – about 5.6 miles (9 kilometers) for soil moisture and 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) for freeze-thaw. Without the radar, the mission's resolving power will be limited to regions of almost 25 miles (40 kilometers) for soil moisture and freeze-thaw. The mission will continue to meet its requirements for soil moisture accuracy and will produce global soil moisture maps every two to three days.
SMAP’s active radar and passive radiometer instruments are designed to complement each other and mitigate the limitations of each measurement alone. The radar enabled high-resolution measurements of up to 1.9 miles, but with lower accuracy for sensing surface soil moisture. In contrast, the microwave radiometer is more accurate in its measurements but has lower resolution of about 25 miles. By combining the active and passive measurements, SMAP was designed to estimate soil moisture at a resolution of 5.6 miles.
Credits: NASA
The nearly three months of coincident measurements by the two instruments are a first of their kind. The combined data set allows scientists to assess the benefit of this type of combined measurement approach for future missions. Scientists now are developing algorithms to produce a freeze-thaw data product at 25-mile resolution from the radiometer data. They also are evaluating whether the 25-mile radiometer soil moisture resolution can be improved.
Based on the available SMAP mission data, scientists have identified other useful science measurements that can be derived from the radiometer data, such as sea surface salinity and high winds over the ocean surface. Over the next several months, the SMAP project and NASA will work to determine how to implement these new measurements into the project's data products.
SMAP is managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington by JPL, with instrument hardware and science contributions made by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. JPL built the spacecraft and is responsible for project management, system engineering, radar instrumentation, mission operations and the ground data system. Goddard is responsible for the radiometer instrument and science data products.
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'Hedgehog' Robots Hop, Tumble in Microgravity
'Hedgehog' Robots Hop, Tumble in Microgravity | NASA
A robot concept called Hedgehog could explore the microgravity environment of comets and asteroids by hopping and rolling around on them. See Hedgehog in action in the microgravity environment of a "vomit comet" parabolic flight.
Hopping, tumbling and flipping over are not typical maneuvers you would expect from a spacecraft exploring other worlds. Traditional Mars rovers, for example, roll around on wheels, and they can't operate upside-down. But on a small body, such as an asteroid or a comet, the low-gravity conditions and rough surfaces make traditional driving all the more hazardous.
While a Mars rover can't operate upside down, the Hedgehog robot can function regardless of which side lands up.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Stanford
Enter Hedgehog: a new concept for a robot that is specifically designed to overcome the challenges of traversing small bodies. The project is being jointly developed by researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California; Stanford University in Stanford, California; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
"Hedgehog is a different kind of robot that would hop and tumble on the surface instead of rolling on wheels. It is shaped like a cube and can operate no matter which side it lands on," said Issa Nesnas, leader of the JPL team.
The basic concept is a cube with spikes that moves by spinning and braking internal flywheels. The spikes protect the robot's body from the terrain and act as feet while hopping and tumbling.
"The spikes could also house instruments such as thermal probes to take the temperature of the surface as the robot tumbles," Nesnas said.
Two Hedgehog prototypes -- one from Stanford and one from JPL -- were tested aboard NASA's C-9 aircraft for microgravity research in June 2015. During 180 parabolas, over the course of four flights, these robots demonstrated several types of maneuvers that would be useful for getting around on small bodies with reduced gravity. Researchers tested these maneuvers on different materials that mimic a wide range of surfaces: sandy, rough and rocky, slippery and icy, and soft and crumbly.
"We demonstrated for the first time our Hedgehog prototypes performing controlled hopping and tumbling in comet-like environments," said Robert Reid, lead engineer on the project at JPL.
Hedgehog's simplest maneuver is a "yaw," or a turn in place. After pointing itself in the right direction, Hedgehog can either hop long distances using one or two spikes or tumble short distances by rotating from one face to another. Hedgehog typically takes large hops toward a target of interest, followed by smaller tumbles as it gets closer.
During one of the experiments on the parabolic flights, the researchers confirmed that Hedgehog can also perform a "tornado" maneuver, in which the robot aggressively spins to launch itself from the surface. This maneuver could be used to escape from a sandy sinkhole or other situations in which the robot would otherwise be stuck.
The JPL Hedgehog prototype has eight spikes and three flywheels. It weighs about 11 pounds (5 kilograms) by itself, but the researchers envision that it could weigh more than 20 pounds (9 kilograms) with instruments such as cameras and spectrometers. The Stanford prototype is slightly smaller and lighter, and it has shorter spikes.
The Hedgehog robot, designed to explore the surfaces of comets and asteroids, can perform a "tornado" maneuver to spin and launch itself from the surface.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Stanford
Both prototypes maneuver by spinning and stopping three internal flywheels using motors and brakes. The braking mechanisms differ between the two prototypes. JPL's version uses disc brakes, and Stanford's prototype uses friction belts to stop the flywheels abruptly.
"By controlling how you brake the flywheels, you can adjust Hedgehog's hopping angle. The idea was to test the two braking systems and understand their advantages and disadvantages," said Marco Pavone, leader of the Stanford team, who originally proposed Hedgehog with Nesnas in 2011.
"The geometry of the Hedgehog spikes has a great influence on its hopping trajectory. We have experimented with several spike configurations and found that a cube shape provides the best hopping performance. The cube structure is also easier to manufacture and package within a spacecraft," said Benjamin Hockman, lead engineer on the project at Stanford.
The researchers are currently working on Hedgehog's autonomy, trying to increase how much the robots can do by themselves without instructions from Earth. Their idea is that an orbiting mothership would relay signals to and from the robot, similar to how NASA's Mars rovers Curiosity and Opportunity communicate via satellites orbiting Mars. The mothership would also help the robots navigate and determine their positions.
The construction of a Hedgehog robot is relatively low-cost compared to a traditional rover, and several could be packaged together for flight, the researchers say. The mothership could release many robots at once or in stages, letting them spread out to make discoveries on a world never traversed before.
NASA's C-9 aircraft for microgravity research gave two Hedgehog prototypes a ride in June 2015 to test their maneuvers.
Credits: NASA
Hedgehog is currently in Phase II development through the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program, and is led by Pavone. The flight development and testing were supported by NASA's Center Innovation Fund (CIF) and NASA's Flight Opportunities Program (FOP), which were led by Nesnas. NIAC, CIF and FOP are programs in NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, located at the agency's headquarters in Washington. JPL is managed by the California Institute of Technology for NASA. Stanford University, MIT and JPL collaborate on the project.
'Hedgehog' Robots Hop, Tumble in Microgravity | NASA
Hopping, tumbling and flipping over are not typical maneuvers you would expect from a spacecraft exploring other worlds. Traditional Mars rovers, for example, roll around on wheels, and they can't operate upside-down. But on a small body, such as an asteroid or a comet, the low-gravity conditions and rough surfaces make traditional driving all the more hazardous.
While a Mars rover can't operate upside down, the Hedgehog robot can function regardless of which side lands up.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Stanford
Enter Hedgehog: a new concept for a robot that is specifically designed to overcome the challenges of traversing small bodies. The project is being jointly developed by researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California; Stanford University in Stanford, California; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
"Hedgehog is a different kind of robot that would hop and tumble on the surface instead of rolling on wheels. It is shaped like a cube and can operate no matter which side it lands on," said Issa Nesnas, leader of the JPL team.
The basic concept is a cube with spikes that moves by spinning and braking internal flywheels. The spikes protect the robot's body from the terrain and act as feet while hopping and tumbling.
"The spikes could also house instruments such as thermal probes to take the temperature of the surface as the robot tumbles," Nesnas said.
Two Hedgehog prototypes -- one from Stanford and one from JPL -- were tested aboard NASA's C-9 aircraft for microgravity research in June 2015. During 180 parabolas, over the course of four flights, these robots demonstrated several types of maneuvers that would be useful for getting around on small bodies with reduced gravity. Researchers tested these maneuvers on different materials that mimic a wide range of surfaces: sandy, rough and rocky, slippery and icy, and soft and crumbly.
"We demonstrated for the first time our Hedgehog prototypes performing controlled hopping and tumbling in comet-like environments," said Robert Reid, lead engineer on the project at JPL.
Hedgehog's simplest maneuver is a "yaw," or a turn in place. After pointing itself in the right direction, Hedgehog can either hop long distances using one or two spikes or tumble short distances by rotating from one face to another. Hedgehog typically takes large hops toward a target of interest, followed by smaller tumbles as it gets closer.
During one of the experiments on the parabolic flights, the researchers confirmed that Hedgehog can also perform a "tornado" maneuver, in which the robot aggressively spins to launch itself from the surface. This maneuver could be used to escape from a sandy sinkhole or other situations in which the robot would otherwise be stuck.
The JPL Hedgehog prototype has eight spikes and three flywheels. It weighs about 11 pounds (5 kilograms) by itself, but the researchers envision that it could weigh more than 20 pounds (9 kilograms) with instruments such as cameras and spectrometers. The Stanford prototype is slightly smaller and lighter, and it has shorter spikes.
The Hedgehog robot, designed to explore the surfaces of comets and asteroids, can perform a "tornado" maneuver to spin and launch itself from the surface.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Stanford
Both prototypes maneuver by spinning and stopping three internal flywheels using motors and brakes. The braking mechanisms differ between the two prototypes. JPL's version uses disc brakes, and Stanford's prototype uses friction belts to stop the flywheels abruptly.
"By controlling how you brake the flywheels, you can adjust Hedgehog's hopping angle. The idea was to test the two braking systems and understand their advantages and disadvantages," said Marco Pavone, leader of the Stanford team, who originally proposed Hedgehog with Nesnas in 2011.
"The geometry of the Hedgehog spikes has a great influence on its hopping trajectory. We have experimented with several spike configurations and found that a cube shape provides the best hopping performance. The cube structure is also easier to manufacture and package within a spacecraft," said Benjamin Hockman, lead engineer on the project at Stanford.
The researchers are currently working on Hedgehog's autonomy, trying to increase how much the robots can do by themselves without instructions from Earth. Their idea is that an orbiting mothership would relay signals to and from the robot, similar to how NASA's Mars rovers Curiosity and Opportunity communicate via satellites orbiting Mars. The mothership would also help the robots navigate and determine their positions.
The construction of a Hedgehog robot is relatively low-cost compared to a traditional rover, and several could be packaged together for flight, the researchers say. The mothership could release many robots at once or in stages, letting them spread out to make discoveries on a world never traversed before.
NASA's C-9 aircraft for microgravity research gave two Hedgehog prototypes a ride in June 2015 to test their maneuvers.
Credits: NASA
Hedgehog is currently in Phase II development through the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program, and is led by Pavone. The flight development and testing were supported by NASA's Center Innovation Fund (CIF) and NASA's Flight Opportunities Program (FOP), which were led by Nesnas. NIAC, CIF and FOP are programs in NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, located at the agency's headquarters in Washington. JPL is managed by the California Institute of Technology for NASA. Stanford University, MIT and JPL collaborate on the project.
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Boeing Revamps Production Facility for Starliner Flights
Boeing Revamps Production Facility for Starliner Flights | NASA
By Steven Siceloff,
NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
Meet the CST-100 Starliner, the newly unveiled name of Boeing’s commercial crew transportation spacecraft. It's been designed with a focus on automated flight, reliable operation and frequent flights carrying NASA astronauts to the space station. It also may take paying customers to the awe-inspiring heights of low-Earth orbit and the unique sensation of sustained weightlessness.
NASA last year awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to each develop systems that will safely and cost effectively transport astronauts to the International Space Station from the United States.
The CST-100 will be assembled and processed for launch at the revitalized Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility, or C3PF, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA had used the facility for 20 years as a shuttle processing hangar and for the extensive preps and testing of the space shuttle main engines in the engine shop.
"One hundred years ago we were on the dawn of the commercial aviation era and today, with the help of NASA, we're on the dawn of a new commercial space era," said Boeing's John Elbon, vice president and general manager of Space Exploration. "It's been such a pleasure to work hand-in-hand with NASA on this commercial crew development, and when we look back 100 years from this point, I’m really excited about what we will have discovered."
With the high bay of the C3PF expected to be complete in December 2015, engineers are building the structural test article for the Starliner in the remodeled engine shop. Though not scheduled to ever make it into space, the test version of the spacecraft will be put through a continuum of tests culminating with a pad abort test in 2017. It will be used as a pathfinder to prove the design Boeing and NASA's Commercial Crew Program worked together to develop is sound and can accomplish its missions.
For NASA, the main mission for Boeing's Starliner and the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft is to re-establish an American launch capability for astronauts to use to reach the space station and make more use of its unique research environment. Experiments are conducted every day in orbit that will improve life on Earth and find answers to the challenges of deep space exploration so astronauts can undertake a successful journey to Mars in the future.
Parts of the Boeing CST-100 Structural Test Article rest on test stands inside the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility, or C3PF, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The test article will serve as a pathfinder for assembling and processing operational CST-100 spacecraft inside the revitalized facility, which for 20 years served as a shuttle processing hangar. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
"Commercial crew is an essential component of our journey to Mars, and in 35 states, 350 American companies are working to make it possible for the greatest country on Earth to once again launch our own astronauts into space,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “That’s some impressive investment.”
NASA expects to use the Starliner and Crew Dragon to take four crew members to the space station at a time, increasing the resident crew on the orbiting laboratory to seven at a time instead of the current six. By adding the workweek of a single new crew member to the capabilities of the space station, the amount of research time available to astronauts in orbit will double to about 80 hours a week.
Kennedy will be the home of Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program, with other buildings at the center to be used as Boeing's Launch Control Center and for mission support.
“Kennedy Space Center has transitioned more than 50 facilities for commercial use. We have made improvements and upgrades to well-known Kennedy workhorses such as the Vehicle Assembly Building, mobile launcher, crawler–transporter and Launch Pad 39B in support of Orion, the SLS and Advanced Exploration Systems,” said Robert Cabana, Kennedy’s center director. “I am proud of our success in transforming Kennedy Space Center to a 21st century, multi-user spaceport that is now capable of supporting the launch of all sizes and classes of vehicles, including horizontal launches from the Shuttle Landing Facility, and spacecraft processing and landing.”
Boeing officials say Kennedy was a natural choice given its expertise along the full range of spacecraft and rocket processing to launch and operations.
"When Boeing was looking for the prime location for its program headquarters, we knew Florida had a lot to offer from the infrastructure to the supplier base to the skilled work force," said Chris Ferguson, a former shuttle commander who now is deputy manager of operations for Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program.
The Starliner will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex-41 on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket. The crew access tower that will support astronauts and ground support teams before launch is being built a couple of miles away from the launch pad now and will be assembled adjacent to the current structures already at the pad. ULA will continue to operate the pad for Atlas V processing and launches during construction of the tower.
Although the infrastructure is coming together quickly, the first flight of the Starliner and Crew Dragon depends on a number of design and testing milestones for the entire space system before either one will be in a position to take its first flight test.
Working under contracts awarded last year, both Boeing and SpaceX agreed to conduct an orbital mission without a crew aboard for their respective spacecraft. Then each will launch a test flight, which includes astronauts, to demonstrate the spacecraft's ability to meet the demands of human-rated spaceflight. Following that mission, the spacecraft will be certified for operational missions carrying a full complement of crew to support the research work on the space station. And astronauts will once again will be taking regular flights from Florida’s Space Coast.
Boeing Revamps Production Facility for Starliner Flights | NASA
By Steven Siceloff,
NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
Meet the CST-100 Starliner, the newly unveiled name of Boeing’s commercial crew transportation spacecraft. It's been designed with a focus on automated flight, reliable operation and frequent flights carrying NASA astronauts to the space station. It also may take paying customers to the awe-inspiring heights of low-Earth orbit and the unique sensation of sustained weightlessness.
NASA last year awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to each develop systems that will safely and cost effectively transport astronauts to the International Space Station from the United States.
The CST-100 will be assembled and processed for launch at the revitalized Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility, or C3PF, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA had used the facility for 20 years as a shuttle processing hangar and for the extensive preps and testing of the space shuttle main engines in the engine shop.
"One hundred years ago we were on the dawn of the commercial aviation era and today, with the help of NASA, we're on the dawn of a new commercial space era," said Boeing's John Elbon, vice president and general manager of Space Exploration. "It's been such a pleasure to work hand-in-hand with NASA on this commercial crew development, and when we look back 100 years from this point, I’m really excited about what we will have discovered."
With the high bay of the C3PF expected to be complete in December 2015, engineers are building the structural test article for the Starliner in the remodeled engine shop. Though not scheduled to ever make it into space, the test version of the spacecraft will be put through a continuum of tests culminating with a pad abort test in 2017. It will be used as a pathfinder to prove the design Boeing and NASA's Commercial Crew Program worked together to develop is sound and can accomplish its missions.
For NASA, the main mission for Boeing's Starliner and the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft is to re-establish an American launch capability for astronauts to use to reach the space station and make more use of its unique research environment. Experiments are conducted every day in orbit that will improve life on Earth and find answers to the challenges of deep space exploration so astronauts can undertake a successful journey to Mars in the future.
Parts of the Boeing CST-100 Structural Test Article rest on test stands inside the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility, or C3PF, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The test article will serve as a pathfinder for assembling and processing operational CST-100 spacecraft inside the revitalized facility, which for 20 years served as a shuttle processing hangar. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
"Commercial crew is an essential component of our journey to Mars, and in 35 states, 350 American companies are working to make it possible for the greatest country on Earth to once again launch our own astronauts into space,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “That’s some impressive investment.”
NASA expects to use the Starliner and Crew Dragon to take four crew members to the space station at a time, increasing the resident crew on the orbiting laboratory to seven at a time instead of the current six. By adding the workweek of a single new crew member to the capabilities of the space station, the amount of research time available to astronauts in orbit will double to about 80 hours a week.
Kennedy will be the home of Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program, with other buildings at the center to be used as Boeing's Launch Control Center and for mission support.
“Kennedy Space Center has transitioned more than 50 facilities for commercial use. We have made improvements and upgrades to well-known Kennedy workhorses such as the Vehicle Assembly Building, mobile launcher, crawler–transporter and Launch Pad 39B in support of Orion, the SLS and Advanced Exploration Systems,” said Robert Cabana, Kennedy’s center director. “I am proud of our success in transforming Kennedy Space Center to a 21st century, multi-user spaceport that is now capable of supporting the launch of all sizes and classes of vehicles, including horizontal launches from the Shuttle Landing Facility, and spacecraft processing and landing.”
Boeing officials say Kennedy was a natural choice given its expertise along the full range of spacecraft and rocket processing to launch and operations.
"When Boeing was looking for the prime location for its program headquarters, we knew Florida had a lot to offer from the infrastructure to the supplier base to the skilled work force," said Chris Ferguson, a former shuttle commander who now is deputy manager of operations for Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program.
The Starliner will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex-41 on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket. The crew access tower that will support astronauts and ground support teams before launch is being built a couple of miles away from the launch pad now and will be assembled adjacent to the current structures already at the pad. ULA will continue to operate the pad for Atlas V processing and launches during construction of the tower.
Although the infrastructure is coming together quickly, the first flight of the Starliner and Crew Dragon depends on a number of design and testing milestones for the entire space system before either one will be in a position to take its first flight test.
Working under contracts awarded last year, both Boeing and SpaceX agreed to conduct an orbital mission without a crew aboard for their respective spacecraft. Then each will launch a test flight, which includes astronauts, to demonstrate the spacecraft's ability to meet the demands of human-rated spaceflight. Following that mission, the spacecraft will be certified for operational missions carrying a full complement of crew to support the research work on the space station. And astronauts will once again will be taking regular flights from Florida’s Space Coast.
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Boeing’s New CST-100 “Starliner” Processing Facility Taking Shape at KSC
Boeing’s New CST-100 “Starliner” Processing Facility Taking Shape at KSC « AmericaSpace
Boeing’s CST-100 “Starliner” spacecraft is depicted here climbing to orbit. The company will begin flying astronauts to and from the International Space Station for NASA as soon as 2017. Image Credit: Boeing
NASA and Boeing unveiled the company’s new spacecraft processing facility at a grand opening event at Kennedy Space Center in Florida this afternoon, revealing the new name of their CST-100 crew capsule; Starliner. The old space shuttle orbiter processing hangar has been transformed to support the next generation of low-Earth orbit human spaceflight, and work is well underway building a Starliner pathfinder test article to certify the vehicle’s design before putting astronauts onboard for flights to and from the International Space Station (ISS) in the next couple years.
“One hundred years ago we were on the dawn of the commercial aviation era and today, with the help of NASA, we’re on the dawn of a new commercial space era,” said Boeing’s John Elbon, vice president and general manager of Space Exploration. “It’s been such a pleasure to work hand-in-hand with NASA on this commercial crew development, and when we look back 100 years from this point, I’m really excited about what we will have discovered.”
A mural depicting on The Boeing Company’s newly named CST-100 Starliner commercial crew transportation spacecraft is installed on the company’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility, or C3PF, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Starliner, which Boeing is developing in partnership with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, will be capable of ferrying a crew of up to seven astronauts to and from the ISS and other low-Earth orbit destinations. NASA only requires seating for four, but in a previous interview with AmericaSpace Chris Ferguson, a veteran astronaut and Director of Crew and Mission Operations for Boeing, said he expects crews of five to fly.
The vehicle will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas-V rocket, just a few miles from Boeing’s Starliner Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility (C3PF), and will cruise autonomously on a six to eight hour trip to the $100 billion orbiting ISS. The astronauts will not need to fly the vehicle themselves at all, and will literally be along for the ride in all aspects of the flight. They will, however, be able to take manual control of the CST-100 at any time, just in case.
“We [Boeing] have a basic level of training we provide that will give the operator, a pilot, the knowledge that they need to operate the spaceship, which is mostly autonomous,” said Ferguson. “They will have the ability to get to the ISS and back, as well as the ability to deal with failures and the ability to take manual control if necessary. NASA wants a single piloted vehicle, so we will train the pilot to whatever level of proficiency they need, and if NASA wants us to train someone else to a pilot level of proficiency then we will be happy to do that. That being said we have factored into our design the ability for a copilot, and train them perhaps to the same level of proficiency as the pilot. They would sit beside the pilot and do all of those types of crew resource management (CRM) types of things that NASA instilled in us shuttle astronauts over the years.”
Boeing, in partnership with Space Florida, has had a lease on the former OPF-3 shuttle hangar for some time now, modernizing the facility to provide an environment for efficient production, testing, and operations for the Starliner similar to Boeing’s satellite, space launch vehicle, and commercial airplane production programs.
“We’re transitioning this facility into a world class manufacturing facility,” said Boeing’s CST-100 Program Manager John Mulholland. “With a 50,000 square foot processing facility it’s going to allow us to process up to six CST-100’s at a time.”
The hangar facility has more than enough room to support processing of multiple CST-100’s simultaneously, and the adjoining sections of the building are well-suited to process other systems such as engines and thrusters before they are integrated into the main spacecraft.
VIDEO: Boeing Unveils Starliner Processing Facility
Boeing’s Starliner work is expected to bring 300-500 full time jobs to Florida’s “Space Coast”, which suffered a big economic blow from the retirement of NASA’s 30-year space shuttle program in 2011.
“This facility will become point and center, we’ll be developing the test articles here and then starting the manufacturing for full services in 2017,” said Boeing engineer Tony Castilleja in a previous AmericaSpace interview. “This is where all the pieces and parts will come in, and we’ll then build everything right here. One side of the building is for processing the service modules, and the other side of the facility is for processing the crew modules. We’ll then ship out to the Atlas launch pad integration facility and off we go.”
At ULA’s nearby Atlas Launch Complex-41 work is visibly underway with the crew access tower astronauts will need to board Starliner for their flights to space. Rising like an erector set, it’s the first of its kind intended for a vehicle that will carry humans into space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station since the one built at Launch Complex 34 for the Apollo missions in the 1960s.
The tower will be comprised of seven major tier segments, or levels, and each will measure about 20 foot square and 28 feet tall. When finished, the tower will stand over 200 feet tall.
Boeing intends to utilize other facilities at KSC to supper their Commercial Crew Program as well, in addition to the C3PF, including a Launch Control Center.
SpaceX and Boeing both received NASA contracts to fly astronauts to and from the ISS with their Dragon and Starliner crew capsules. Boeing, however, received a much larger piece of the multi-billion-dollar pie, with $4.2 billion for Boeing and $2.6 billion for SpaceX. Boeing also received the first of up to six orders from NASA to execute a crew-rotation mission of Starliner to the ISS earlier this year, although NASA emphasized that the order does not necessarily imply that Starliner will fly ahead of the SpaceX Crew Dragon, and that “determination of which company will fly its mission to the station first will be made at a later time”.
Boeing’s New CST-100 “Starliner” Processing Facility Taking Shape at KSC « AmericaSpace
Boeing’s CST-100 “Starliner” spacecraft is depicted here climbing to orbit. The company will begin flying astronauts to and from the International Space Station for NASA as soon as 2017. Image Credit: Boeing
NASA and Boeing unveiled the company’s new spacecraft processing facility at a grand opening event at Kennedy Space Center in Florida this afternoon, revealing the new name of their CST-100 crew capsule; Starliner. The old space shuttle orbiter processing hangar has been transformed to support the next generation of low-Earth orbit human spaceflight, and work is well underway building a Starliner pathfinder test article to certify the vehicle’s design before putting astronauts onboard for flights to and from the International Space Station (ISS) in the next couple years.
“One hundred years ago we were on the dawn of the commercial aviation era and today, with the help of NASA, we’re on the dawn of a new commercial space era,” said Boeing’s John Elbon, vice president and general manager of Space Exploration. “It’s been such a pleasure to work hand-in-hand with NASA on this commercial crew development, and when we look back 100 years from this point, I’m really excited about what we will have discovered.”
A mural depicting on The Boeing Company’s newly named CST-100 Starliner commercial crew transportation spacecraft is installed on the company’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility, or C3PF, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Starliner, which Boeing is developing in partnership with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, will be capable of ferrying a crew of up to seven astronauts to and from the ISS and other low-Earth orbit destinations. NASA only requires seating for four, but in a previous interview with AmericaSpace Chris Ferguson, a veteran astronaut and Director of Crew and Mission Operations for Boeing, said he expects crews of five to fly.
The vehicle will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas-V rocket, just a few miles from Boeing’s Starliner Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility (C3PF), and will cruise autonomously on a six to eight hour trip to the $100 billion orbiting ISS. The astronauts will not need to fly the vehicle themselves at all, and will literally be along for the ride in all aspects of the flight. They will, however, be able to take manual control of the CST-100 at any time, just in case.
“We [Boeing] have a basic level of training we provide that will give the operator, a pilot, the knowledge that they need to operate the spaceship, which is mostly autonomous,” said Ferguson. “They will have the ability to get to the ISS and back, as well as the ability to deal with failures and the ability to take manual control if necessary. NASA wants a single piloted vehicle, so we will train the pilot to whatever level of proficiency they need, and if NASA wants us to train someone else to a pilot level of proficiency then we will be happy to do that. That being said we have factored into our design the ability for a copilot, and train them perhaps to the same level of proficiency as the pilot. They would sit beside the pilot and do all of those types of crew resource management (CRM) types of things that NASA instilled in us shuttle astronauts over the years.”
Boeing, in partnership with Space Florida, has had a lease on the former OPF-3 shuttle hangar for some time now, modernizing the facility to provide an environment for efficient production, testing, and operations for the Starliner similar to Boeing’s satellite, space launch vehicle, and commercial airplane production programs.
“We’re transitioning this facility into a world class manufacturing facility,” said Boeing’s CST-100 Program Manager John Mulholland. “With a 50,000 square foot processing facility it’s going to allow us to process up to six CST-100’s at a time.”
The hangar facility has more than enough room to support processing of multiple CST-100’s simultaneously, and the adjoining sections of the building are well-suited to process other systems such as engines and thrusters before they are integrated into the main spacecraft.
Boeing’s Starliner work is expected to bring 300-500 full time jobs to Florida’s “Space Coast”, which suffered a big economic blow from the retirement of NASA’s 30-year space shuttle program in 2011.
“This facility will become point and center, we’ll be developing the test articles here and then starting the manufacturing for full services in 2017,” said Boeing engineer Tony Castilleja in a previous AmericaSpace interview. “This is where all the pieces and parts will come in, and we’ll then build everything right here. One side of the building is for processing the service modules, and the other side of the facility is for processing the crew modules. We’ll then ship out to the Atlas launch pad integration facility and off we go.”
At ULA’s nearby Atlas Launch Complex-41 work is visibly underway with the crew access tower astronauts will need to board Starliner for their flights to space. Rising like an erector set, it’s the first of its kind intended for a vehicle that will carry humans into space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station since the one built at Launch Complex 34 for the Apollo missions in the 1960s.
The tower will be comprised of seven major tier segments, or levels, and each will measure about 20 foot square and 28 feet tall. When finished, the tower will stand over 200 feet tall.
Boeing intends to utilize other facilities at KSC to supper their Commercial Crew Program as well, in addition to the C3PF, including a Launch Control Center.
SpaceX and Boeing both received NASA contracts to fly astronauts to and from the ISS with their Dragon and Starliner crew capsules. Boeing, however, received a much larger piece of the multi-billion-dollar pie, with $4.2 billion for Boeing and $2.6 billion for SpaceX. Boeing also received the first of up to six orders from NASA to execute a crew-rotation mission of Starliner to the ISS earlier this year, although NASA emphasized that the order does not necessarily imply that Starliner will fly ahead of the SpaceX Crew Dragon, and that “determination of which company will fly its mission to the station first will be made at a later time”.
Fenrir
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New Horizons Restarts Sending Pretty, Pretty Data Home Today!
It’s coming, it’s coming! The New Horizons space probe starts its intensive data downlink phase today! You know what that means? New, never-seen photos of the dwarf planet are coming right at us! Squee!!
New Horizons has tens of gigabits of data from the Pluto flyby which will bedownlinked via the Deep Space Network of antennas. The spacecraft is so far away, it takes the radio signals carrying the data 4.5 hours to make the trip from probe to Earth. The spacecraft can only collect data or downlink it, so during the flyby it was busy measuring as much as it could about Pluto and its moons to tell us about later. In the month after the initial flurry, the team purposely scheduled the massive, slow-to-downlink datasets on energetic particles, solar wind, and space dust to give themselves a bit of a breather. But today marks a change when that 1 to 4 kilobits per second is switched over images, spectra, and other data. While it’s impossible to predict what secrets the dwarf planet has in store for us, we know the New Horizons science team will release their raw, unprocessed image sets each Friday until all the data is down in Fall 2016.
Want to watch the data come down? Check out the real-time Deep Space now website!
It’s coming, it’s coming! The New Horizons space probe starts its intensive data downlink phase today! You know what that means? New, never-seen photos of the dwarf planet are coming right at us! Squee!!
New Horizons has tens of gigabits of data from the Pluto flyby which will bedownlinked via the Deep Space Network of antennas. The spacecraft is so far away, it takes the radio signals carrying the data 4.5 hours to make the trip from probe to Earth. The spacecraft can only collect data or downlink it, so during the flyby it was busy measuring as much as it could about Pluto and its moons to tell us about later. In the month after the initial flurry, the team purposely scheduled the massive, slow-to-downlink datasets on energetic particles, solar wind, and space dust to give themselves a bit of a breather. But today marks a change when that 1 to 4 kilobits per second is switched over images, spectra, and other data. While it’s impossible to predict what secrets the dwarf planet has in store for us, we know the New Horizons science team will release their raw, unprocessed image sets each Friday until all the data is down in Fall 2016.
Want to watch the data come down? Check out the real-time Deep Space now website!
Fenrir
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World’s Most Powerful Digital Camera Sees Construction Green Light
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope’s ‘Eye’ Will be Built at SLAC
World’s Most Powerful Digital Camera Sees Construction Green Light | SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Menlo Park, Calif. —The Department of Energy has approved the start of construction for a 3.2-gigapixel digital camera – the world’s largest – at the heart of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). Assembled at the DOE's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the camera will be the eye of LSST, revealing unprecedented details of the universe and helping unravel some of its greatest mysteries.
The construction milestone, known as Critical Decision 3, is the last major approval decision before the acceptance of the finished camera, said LSST Director Steven Kahn: “Now we can go ahead and procure components and start building it.”
Starting in 2022, LSST will take digital images of the entire visible southern sky every few nights from atop a mountain called Cerro Pachón in Chile. It will produce a wide, deep and fast survey of the night sky, cataloguing by far the largest number of stars and galaxies ever observed. During a 10-year time frame, LSST will detect tens of billions of objects—the first time a telescope will observe more galaxies than there are people on Earth – and will create movies of the sky with unprecedented details. Funding for the camera comes from the DOE, while financial support for the telescope and site facilities, the data management system, and the education and public outreach infrastructure of LSST comes primarily from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The telescope’s camera – the size of a small car and weighing more than three tons – will capture full-sky images at such high resolution that it would take 1,500 high-definition television screens to display just one of them.
The LSST’s camera will include a filter-changing mechanism and shutter. This animation shows that mechanism at work, which allows the camera to view different wavelengths; the camera is capable of viewing light from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared (0.3-1 μm) wavelengths. (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
This has already been a busy year for the LSST Project. Its dual-surface primary/tertiary mirror – the first of its kind for a major telescope – was completed; a traditional stone-laying ceremony in northern Chile marked the beginning of on-site construction of the facility; and a nearly 2,000-square-foot, 2-story-tall clean room was completed at SLAC to accommodate fabrication of the camera.
“We are very gratified to see everyone’s hard work appreciated and acknowledged by this DOE approval,” said SLAC Director Chi-Chang Kao. “SLAC is honored to be partnering with the National Science Foundation and other DOE labs on this groundbreaking endeavor. We’re also excited about the wide range of scientific opportunities offered by LSST, in particular increasing our understanding of dark energy.”
Components of the camera are being built by an international collaboration of universities and labs, including DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and SLAC. SLAC is responsible for overall project management and systems engineering, camera body design and fabrication, data acquisition and camera control software, cryostat design and fabrication, and integration and testing of the entire camera. Building and testing the camera will take approximately five years.
SLAC is also designing and constructing the NSF-funded database for the telescope’s data management system. LSST will generate a vast public archive of data—approximately 6 million gigabytes per year, or the equivalent of shooting roughly 800,000 images with a regular 8-megapixel digital camera every night, albeit of much higher quality and scientific value. This data will help researchers study the formation of galaxies, track potentially hazardous asteroids, observe exploding stars and better understand dark matter and dark energy, which together make up 95 percent of the universe but whose natures remain unknown.
“We have a busy agenda for the rest of 2015 and 2016,” said Kahn. “Construction of the telescope on the mountain is well underway. The contracts for fabrication of the telescope mount and the dome enclosure have been awarded and the vendors are at full steam.”
Nadine Kurita, camera project manager at SLAC, said fabrication of the state-of-the-art sensors for the camera has already begun, and contracts are being awarded for optical elements and other major components. “After several years of focusing on designs and prototypes, we are excited to start construction of key parts of the camera. The coming year will be crucial as we assemble and test the sensors for the focal plane.”
The National Research Council’s Astronomy and Astrophysics decadal survey, Astro2010, ranked the LSST as the top ground-based priority for the field for the current decade. The recent report of the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel of the federal High Energy Physics Advisory Panel, setting forth the strategic plan for U.S. particle physics, also recommended completion of the LSST.
“We’ve been working hard for years to get to this point,” said Kurita. “Everyone is very excited to start building the camera and take a big step toward conducting a deep survey of the Southern night sky.”
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope’s ‘Eye’ Will be Built at SLAC
World’s Most Powerful Digital Camera Sees Construction Green Light | SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Menlo Park, Calif. —The Department of Energy has approved the start of construction for a 3.2-gigapixel digital camera – the world’s largest – at the heart of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). Assembled at the DOE's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the camera will be the eye of LSST, revealing unprecedented details of the universe and helping unravel some of its greatest mysteries.
The construction milestone, known as Critical Decision 3, is the last major approval decision before the acceptance of the finished camera, said LSST Director Steven Kahn: “Now we can go ahead and procure components and start building it.”
Starting in 2022, LSST will take digital images of the entire visible southern sky every few nights from atop a mountain called Cerro Pachón in Chile. It will produce a wide, deep and fast survey of the night sky, cataloguing by far the largest number of stars and galaxies ever observed. During a 10-year time frame, LSST will detect tens of billions of objects—the first time a telescope will observe more galaxies than there are people on Earth – and will create movies of the sky with unprecedented details. Funding for the camera comes from the DOE, while financial support for the telescope and site facilities, the data management system, and the education and public outreach infrastructure of LSST comes primarily from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The telescope’s camera – the size of a small car and weighing more than three tons – will capture full-sky images at such high resolution that it would take 1,500 high-definition television screens to display just one of them.
The LSST’s camera will include a filter-changing mechanism and shutter. This animation shows that mechanism at work, which allows the camera to view different wavelengths; the camera is capable of viewing light from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared (0.3-1 μm) wavelengths. (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
This has already been a busy year for the LSST Project. Its dual-surface primary/tertiary mirror – the first of its kind for a major telescope – was completed; a traditional stone-laying ceremony in northern Chile marked the beginning of on-site construction of the facility; and a nearly 2,000-square-foot, 2-story-tall clean room was completed at SLAC to accommodate fabrication of the camera.
“We are very gratified to see everyone’s hard work appreciated and acknowledged by this DOE approval,” said SLAC Director Chi-Chang Kao. “SLAC is honored to be partnering with the National Science Foundation and other DOE labs on this groundbreaking endeavor. We’re also excited about the wide range of scientific opportunities offered by LSST, in particular increasing our understanding of dark energy.”
Components of the camera are being built by an international collaboration of universities and labs, including DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and SLAC. SLAC is responsible for overall project management and systems engineering, camera body design and fabrication, data acquisition and camera control software, cryostat design and fabrication, and integration and testing of the entire camera. Building and testing the camera will take approximately five years.
SLAC is also designing and constructing the NSF-funded database for the telescope’s data management system. LSST will generate a vast public archive of data—approximately 6 million gigabytes per year, or the equivalent of shooting roughly 800,000 images with a regular 8-megapixel digital camera every night, albeit of much higher quality and scientific value. This data will help researchers study the formation of galaxies, track potentially hazardous asteroids, observe exploding stars and better understand dark matter and dark energy, which together make up 95 percent of the universe but whose natures remain unknown.
“We have a busy agenda for the rest of 2015 and 2016,” said Kahn. “Construction of the telescope on the mountain is well underway. The contracts for fabrication of the telescope mount and the dome enclosure have been awarded and the vendors are at full steam.”
Nadine Kurita, camera project manager at SLAC, said fabrication of the state-of-the-art sensors for the camera has already begun, and contracts are being awarded for optical elements and other major components. “After several years of focusing on designs and prototypes, we are excited to start construction of key parts of the camera. The coming year will be crucial as we assemble and test the sensors for the focal plane.”
The National Research Council’s Astronomy and Astrophysics decadal survey, Astro2010, ranked the LSST as the top ground-based priority for the field for the current decade. The recent report of the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel of the federal High Energy Physics Advisory Panel, setting forth the strategic plan for U.S. particle physics, also recommended completion of the LSST.
“We’ve been working hard for years to get to this point,” said Kurita. “Everyone is very excited to start building the camera and take a big step toward conducting a deep survey of the Southern night sky.”
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