US Space Program - a thread

[Fenrir]

Atlas V blasts off on GPS-Satellite Delivery Mission

An Atlas V 401 rocket carrying the GPS IIF10 satellite blasted off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Wednesday at 15:36 UTC, embarking on a mission of three and a half hours to deliver the GPS IIF10 satellite to an orbit over 20,000 Kilometers in altitude. Atlas V successfully reached a parking orbit for a three-hour coast phase ahead of a critical burn of its Centaur upper stage to circularize the orbit for spacecraft separation at 18:59 UTC.

Atlas V went through a quiet countdown operation picking up seven and a half hours prior to the opening of the day’s 18-minute launch window. The first several hours of the count were dedicated to detailed checkouts of the Atlas V and final hands-on work at the launch pad to configure the 58-meter tall rocket and all ground systems for blastoff. The vehicle headed into propellant loading when clocks resumed counting at T-2 hours to begin the process of filling the two stages of the rocket with Liquid Oxygen and Liquid Hydrogen – Rocket Propellant 1 had been loaded into the first stage on Tuesday.

Tanking was completed without issue and clocks ticked down to T-4 minutes for a 30-minute hold giving teams time for final setup tasks and the required GO/NoGO polls. All stations were able to report a GO for launch including the Eastern Range and the Launch Weather Officer as cumulus clouds stayed away from the Cape and conditions were seen improving throughout the countdown. Heading into T-4 minutes, Atlas V executed the final steps needed to transition to its liftoff configuration.

Three seconds prior to blastoff, the massive two-chamber RD-180 engine soared to life, reaching a liftoff thrust of 390 metric ton-force. Climbing from its pad after lifting off at 15:36:00 UTC, Atlas V balanced in a vertical posture for 18 seconds before pitching and rolling onto a north-easterly flight path, targeting an obit inclined 55 degrees. The first stage showed good performance throughout its burn of four minutes and 3 seconds that was followed by the separation of the Centaur Upper Stage and the ignition of the RL-10C engine, reaching its full thrust of 11,200kgf.

Centaur burned for 12 minutes and 43 seconds and successfully placed the stack into an elliptical transfer orbit with its apogee close to the GPS orbital altitude. This successful first burn set the vehicle up for a three-hour coast phase that will take it to a position near the high point of the orbit so that the second burn can serve as circularization maneuver. This lengthy coast takes the vehicle across the Atlantic, over the UK, a large portion of Central and Eastern Europe, the Black Sea, the Arabian Peninsula and out over the Indian Ocean to head to a position to the south of Australia for the second burn.

Re-start of the RL-10C engine of Centaur is expected three hours and 17 minutes after liftoff on a short burn of one minute and 28 seconds to raise the perigee and aim for a circular orbit. GPS IIF10 is targeting the standard GPS orbit of 20,459 Kilometers inclined 55° to take its place within Plane C of the GPS constellation. Spacecraft separation is expected at 18:59 UTC on Wednesday.

 

[Fenrir]

The Ice of Pluto is More Diverse Than We Realized

We give up: Pluto is out to surprise us. This time it’s the ice. We thought it’d be easy once we confirmed ice caps of methane and nitrogen, but the story is much more complicated. The entire world has methane ice, but it’s concentrated at the equator and relatively thin at the pole.

Yesterday, NASA released the first data back from the Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA). You can think of the spectra as a methane distribution map for the dwarf planet. Both the red and blue bands cover where shortwave infrared light is strongly absorbed by methane ice, while the green band is unaffected.

In our first detailed spectra of Pluto, we can see an abundance of unevenly distributed methane ice. The ice is present across the world, but in a complex distribution we’re just barely starting to describe, and certainly don’t yet understand. Both the pole and equator have ice, but what that ice is made of, what it looks like, and how it behaves are totally different. This is Pluto’s version of playing with how textures and contamination impact an an ice’s behaviour and appearance. Although this spectra is looking at methane and nitrogen ice, you can think of it being somewhat analogous to how flawless deep blue ice and fluffy clean white snow look different despite both being pure, and how pristine snowy wilderness is immediately distinguishable fromgrungy street-clearing snowbanks.

New Horizons scientist Will Grundy describes the north polar region, confirmed as an ice cap just days ago, as an uneven mix of methane and nitrogen:

We just learned that in the north polar cap, methane ice is diluted in a thick, transparent slab of nitrogen ice resulting in strong absorption of infrared light.

From the spectra, the cap has a deep methane absorption. Meanwhile, equatorial patches that are so dark in optical light have shallow infrared absorption. This led Grundy to speculate:

The spectrum appears as if the ice is less diluted in nitrogen, or that it has a different texture in that area.

The more shallow dip in the spectra suggests that something is scattered more infrared light.

Methane, a carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms, is considered one of the simplest organic compounds—although the term ‘organic’ is often confused to mean that methane can only be produced biologically. As we’ve learned exploring our own solar system, and by pointing our telescopes into distant clouds of interstellar dust, methane forms spontaneously all over the galaxy. Geochemically, it can be formed via a process known as serpentenization, involving water, carbon dioxide, and the mineral olivine—this is thought to be the dominant methane-forming process on Mars. It can also be formed by inorganic reactions with strong oxidizing agents, things like chlorine and fluorine, and biologically, through a type of anaerobic (oxygen-free) metabolism known as methanogenesis.

The discovery of methane on Pluto actually places the dwarf planet in line with every single other planet in our solar system—we’ve found methane everywhere, from trace quantities in Mercury’s thin atmosphere, to small amounts in the Martian crust, to literal oceans of the stuff on Saturn’s moon Titan (methane turns condenses from gas to liquid at a blistering −161.49 °C or −258.68 °F.) So abundant is liquid methane on Titan that scientists have run computer simulations to model the formation of a living cell based on methane rather than water.

But again, methane-based life is only speculation. Using Earth biology as an example, extraterrestrial methane would only be taken as strong potential evidence of life if it was found in disequilibrium in the atmosphere—that is, in combination with something like oxygen that would naturally consume methane. Liquid water and a heat source would make that case even stronger.

We don’t yet know what the frozen methane spread across Pluto’s surface means—this is just the very barest beginning of a hint of the science story going on here. It’s going to get more interesting as more spectra are returned back to Earth, and downright fascinating once we get a glimpse at what happened when LEISA spun around to peek at Charon. With spectra of both worlds, we’ll finally be able to start playing the matching game of seeing if we can find the same materials on both worlds, hopefully drawing connections between the two.

LEISA is a spectrometer on Ralph that operates in infrared wavelengths (1.25-2.50 micrometers) to map surface compositions. A different instrument, Alice, keeps an eye on the composition of atmospheres. Both instruments have their individual strengths and weakness, but between them we’ll hopefully slowly build a more complete map of how different elements are scattered around these alien worlds. For example, later spectra from LEISA will be able to distinguish between methane, ethane, and propane, but it will always be blind to any argon on the surface.

Only a portion of the first spectrum was returned for this initial downlink. This is a false colour image, where three infrared wavelength bands are mapped into the optical spectra for us to be able to see them. Red is remapped to capture the longest wavelengths (2.30 to 2.33 micrometers), followed by green (1.97 to 2.05 micrometers) and blue at the short end of infrared (1.62 to 1.70 micrometers). Pluto glows brightly in these short infrared bands, with a distinctly green northern cap with a limb reaching down to the equator, an a much more red southern hemisphere. To the right are individual spectral lines, recordings of the exact distribution of infrared light at the regions outlined with a thick dashed line. The northern pole (green) has a more extreme spectra with both higher peaks and troughs than the equator (red). The notable dips mark methane absorptions.

 

[Fenrir]

STEREO-A Spacecraft Returns Data From the Far Side of the Sun

This image of the sun was taken on July 15, 2015, with the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager onboard NASA's Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory Ahead (STEREO-A) spacecraft, which collects images in several wavelengths of light that are invisible to the human eye. This image shows the sun in wavelengths of 171 angstroms, which are typically colorized in blue. STEREO-A has been on the far side of the sun since March 24, where it had to operate in safe mode, collecting and saving data from its radio instrument. The first images in over three months were received from STEREO-A on July 11.

The three-month safe mode period was necessary because of the geometry between Earth, the sun, and STEREO-A. STEREO-A orbits the sun as Earth does, but in a slightly smaller and faster orbit. The orbit ensured that over the course of years, Earth and the spacecraft got out of sync, with STEREO-A ending up on the other side of the sun from Earth, where it could show us views of our star that we couldn’t see from home. Though the sun only physically blocked STEREO-A from Earth’s line of sight for a few days, STEREO-A was close enough to the sun—from our perspective -- that from March 24 until July 8, the sun interfered with STEREO-A’s data transmission signal, making it impossible to interpret.

As STEREO-A kept orbiting, it eventually made its way far enough from the sun to come out of this transmission dark zone. In late June, the STEREO-A team began receiving status updates from the spacecraft, confirming that it had made it through its long safe-mode journey unharmed.

STEREO is the third mission in NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probes program (STP). The mission, launched in October 2006, has provided a unique and revolutionary view of the sun-Earth system. The two nearly identical observatories - one ahead of Earth in its orbit, the other trailing behind - have traced the flow of energy and matter from the sun to Earth.

Image Credit: NASA/STEREO

 

[Fenrir]

How our view of Pluto has changed over the years

Pluto was discovered back in 1930 and that cute dwarf planet has been a blurry gray pixelated object to us ever since. Though our view of Pluto has gotten better ever so slightly over the years, we’ve never seen it in detail until the New Horizons spacecraft flew by everyone’s favorite former planet.

SpaceSciNewsroom put together this video showing how much our view of Pluto has been improved:

The first frame is a digital zoom-in on Pluto as it appeared upon its discovery by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 (image courtesy Lowell Observatory Archives). The other images show various views of Pluto as seen by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope beginning in the 1990s and NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft in 2015. The final sequence zooms in to a close-up frame of Pluto released on July 15, 2015.

 

[Fenrir]

Battling Wildfires from Space: NASA Adds to Firefighters’ Toolkit

U.S. firefighters battling wildfires this year will get a clearer view of these threats with new NASA-funded satellite-based tools to better detect fires nationwide and predict their behavior.

The new fire detection tool now in operation at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service (USFS) uses data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite to detect smaller fires in more detail than previous space-based products. The high-resolution data have been used with a cutting-edge computer model to predict how a fire will change direction based on weather and land conditions.

This tool is another example of the high-value benefits from cooperative efforts between NASA and the USDA, the future of which was formalized Thursday when NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman and USDA Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden signed an agreement that establishes a framework for future enhanced cooperation in the areas of Earth science research, technology, agricultural management, and the application of science data, models and technology in agricultural decision-making.

The new active fire detection product using data from Suomi NPP’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) increases the resolution of fire observations to 1,230 feet (375 meters). Previous NASA satellite data products available since the early 2000s observed fires at 3,280 foot (1 kilometer) resolution. The jump in detail is helping transform how satellite remote sensing data are used in support of wildfire management.

The data are one of the intelligence tools used by the USFS and Department of Interior agencies across the United States to guide resource allocation and strategic fire management decisions.

“The high-resolution data gleaned from VIIRS are available in a short time period and significantly enhances the Forest Service’s current strategic fire detection and monitoring capabilities,” said Brad Quayle, program lead at the USFS Remote Sensing Applications Center in Salt Lake City. “They are welcomed by the end users we serve in the interagency wildfire management community.”

The jump in detail provided by the new Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite 375-meter fire detection product is helping transform how satellite remote sensing is supporting wildfire management. These images of the progression of the September 2014 King Fire in California demonstrate the improved resolution over previous fire detection products.
Credits: University of Maryland/W. Schroeder

Compared to its predecessors, the enhanced VIIRS fire product enables detection every 12 hours or less of much smaller fires and provides more detail and consistent tracking of fire lines during long duration wildfires – capabilities critical for early warning systems and support of routine mapping of fire progression. Active fire locations are available to users within minutes from the satellite overpass through data processing facilities at the USFS Remote Sensing Applications Center, which uses technologies developed by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Direct Readout Laboratory in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The new VIIRS 375m fire detection product was developed with support from NASA’s Earth Science Applied Sciences Program, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Joint Polar Satellite System Proving Ground Program, and the U.S. Forest Service. The project team was led by Wilfrid Schroeder at the University of Maryland College Park with scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, Colorado.

NCAR developed a new cutting-edge weather-fire model that has demonstrated potential to enhance firefighter and public safety by increasing awareness of rapidly changing fire behavior. The model uses data on weather conditions and the land surrounding an active fire to predict 12-18 hours in advance whether a blaze will shift direction. The VIIRS fire detection product has been applied to these models, successfully verifying the wildfire simulations.

The state of Colorado recently decided to incorporate the weather-fire model in its firefighting efforts beginning with the 2016 fire season.

“We hope that by infusing these higher resolution detection data and fire behavior modeling outputs into tactical fire situations, we can lessen the pressure on those working in fire management,” said Schroeder.

In 2014, an international field campaign was organized in South Africa’s Kruger National Park to validate fire detection products including the new VIIRS active fire data. In advance of that campaign, the Meraka Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Pretoria, South Africa, an early adopter of the VIIRS 375m fire product, put it to use during several large wildfires in Kruger.

“We had some serious wildfires in September 2014, and the VIIRS 375-meter data performed excellently,” said Philip Frost of the Meraka Institute.

The demand for timely, high-quality fire information has increased in recent years. Wildfires in the United States burn an average of 7 million acres of land each year. For the last 10 years, the USFS and Department of Interior have spent a combined average of about $1.5 billion annually on wildfire suppression. Large catastrophic wildfires have become commonplace, especially in association with extended drought and extreme weather.

NASA’s expertise in space and scientific exploration contributes to essential services provided to the American people by other federal agencies, such as natural resource management and weather forecasting. Suomi NPP is a joint mission of NASA and NOAA launched in 2011.

The multispectral imaging capabilities of the Suomi NPP VIIRS instrument support atmospheric studies and a variety of operational products including imaging of hurricanes, sea surface temperature, sea ice, landscapes, and the detection of fires, smoke and atmospheric aerosols.

NASA uses the vantage point of space to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives, and safeguard our future. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records. The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing.

Active fire maps of the United States are available online at:

http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us

For more information on how NASA Earth science aids people, visit:

Benefits on Earth | NASA

 

[Fenrir]

Soar Over Pluto's Heart at 77,000 Kilometers in This New Animation

This animated flyover of the Norgay mountains and Sputnik plains on Pluto are based on the freshly-delivered close-approach images from the New Horizons flyby. See features just a single kilometre big as you experience what it would be like to hitch a ride on the spacecraft as it skimmed past the dwarf planet.

This flyby is over part of Tombaugh Regio, the massive heart of Pluto. The mountains, Norgay Montes, are named for Tenzing Norgay. Norgay was the Nepalese sherpa who accompanied Edmund Hillary, making him one of the first two people to summit Mount Everest in 1935. This is the first extraterrestrial landscape to be named for someone from Nepal. The plains, Sputnik Planum, are named for the original space explorer: Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite above the Earth. These names fit the secondary exploration theme for place names on Pluto, and make a more pleasant change from the dark gods populating the dwarf planet so far.

The animation was created from images taken by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on the New Horizons probe during the Pluto flyby on July 14, 2015. Using photographs taken from just 77,000 kilometers (48,000 miles) away from the surface, the resolution in the subsequent animation is good enough that features as small as a kilometers across (0.5 miles) are visible.

So much geology and geomorphology is going on in this animation that we’re going to need to get back to you later with a full breakdown. For now, check out this how-to guide to learn how a geomorphologist looks at a new landscape like this.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

more Pluto

 

[Fenrir]

Pedal to the Metal – RS-25 Engine Revs Up Again

In auto racing parlance, NASA engineers put the “pedal to the metal” during a July 17 test of its Space Launch System (SLS) RS-25 rocket engine at Stennis Space Center. During a 535-second test, operators ran the RS-25 through a series of power levels, including a period of firing at 109 percent of the engine’s rated power. Data collected on performance of the engine at the various power levels will aid in adapting the former space shuttle engines to the new SLS vehicle mission requirements, including development of an all-new engine controller and software. Four RS-25 engines will use the added performance to help power the SLS core stage during launch. The SLS is being developed to carry humans deeper into space than ever before, to such destinations as an asteroid and Mars. When fully developed, the heavy-lift version of the spacecraft will be the largest, most powerful rocket ever built. Prior to the first launch – Exploration Mission-1, the SLS first stage will be tested on the B-2 Test Stand at Stennis, which will involve simultaneously firing its four RS-25 engines just as they would during an actual launch. Modifications are continuing to prepare the B-2 stand for the test series. Meanwhile, during the July 17 development engine test on the nearby A-1 Test Stand, operators continued to collect data on engine performance under various conditions. They also collected data on performance of the new controller, which monitors and controls engine performance. Aerojet Rocketdyne of Sacramento, California, is the prime contractor for the RS-25 engine work. Two additional tests of the RS-25 engine are planned before the current test series concludes by early September and a new test series begins on four engines for a future flight.

 

[Fenrir]

Hubble's Portrait Of The Crowded Quintuplet Cluster

This latest image from the Hubble Space Telescope is utterly stunning: it’s of the Quintuplet Cluster, named for its five brightest stars. Up until 1990, we had no idea that this existed: because it’s so close to the center of the galaxy, dust has blocked our view of it.

This image was taken by observing region of space with infrared observations, which has allowed us to take a look at the region’s stars. There’s extremely bright ones present: The Pistol Star is a blue hypergiant and one of the most luminous in our galaxy. It’s not expected to last long: it will burn through its fuel in just a couple of million years. The cluster is also home to a number of red supergiants, which indicate that the stars in this region of space are very, very short lived.

What’s also interesting is that this image is a really great example of how much better the Hubble Space Telescope has gotten at viewing the cosmos. Here’s our first image of the cluster:

 

[Fenrir]

NASA’s New Horizons Discovers Frozen Plains in the Heart of Pluto’s ‘Heart’

In the center left of Pluto’s vast heart-shaped feature – informally named “Tombaugh Regio” - lies a vast, craterless plain that appears to be no more than 100 million years old, and is possibly still being shaped by geologic processes. This frozen region is north of Pluto’s icy mountains and has been informally named Sputnik Planum (Sputnik Plain), after Earth’s first artificial satellite. The surface appears to be divided into irregularly-shaped segments that are ringed by narrow troughs. Features that appear to be groups of mounds and fields of small pits are also visible. This image was acquired by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 14 from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers). Features as small as one-half mile (1 kilometer) across are visible. The blocky appearance of some features is due to compression of the image. Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI

In the latest data from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, a new close-up image of Pluto reveals a vast, craterless plain that appears to be no more than 100 million years old, and is possibly still being shaped by geologic processes. This frozen region is north of Pluto’s icy mountains, in the center-left of the heart feature, informally named “Tombaugh Regio” (Tombaugh Region) after Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930.

“This terrain is not easy to explain,” said Jeff Moore, leader of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging Team (GGI) at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. “The discovery of vast, craterless, very young plains on Pluto exceeds all pre-flyby expectations.”

This fascinating icy plains region -- resembling frozen mud cracks on Earth -- has been informally named “Sputnik Planum” (Sputnik Plain) after the Earth’s first artificial satellite. It has a broken surface of irregularly-shaped segments, roughly 12 miles (20 kilometers) across, bordered by what appear to be shallow troughs. Some of these troughs have darker material within them, while others are traced by clumps of hills that appear to rise above the surrounding terrain. Elsewhere, the surface appears to be etched by fields of small pits that may have formed by a process called sublimation, in which ice turns directly from solid to gas, just as dry ice does on Earth.

Scientists have two working theories as to how these segments were formed. The irregular shapes may be the result of the contraction of surface materials, similar to what happens when mud dries. Alternatively, they may be a product of convection, similar to wax rising in a lava lamp. On Pluto, convection would occur within a surface layer of frozen carbon monoxide, methane and nitrogen, driven by the scant warmth of Pluto’s interior.

Pluto’s icy plains also display dark streaks that are a few miles long. These streaks appear to be aligned in the same direction and may have been produced by winds blowing across the frozen surface.

The Tuesday “heart of the heart” image was taken when New Horizons was 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers) from Pluto, and shows features as small as one-half mile (1 kilometer) across. Mission scientists will learn more about these mysterious terrains from higher-resolution and stereo images that New Horizons will pull from its digital recorders and send back to Earth during the next year.

The New Horizons Atmospheres team observed Pluto’s atmosphere as far as 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) above the surface, demonstrating that Pluto’s nitrogen-rich atmosphere is quite extended. This is the first observation of Pluto’s atmosphere at altitudes higher than 170 miles above the surface (270 kilometers).

The New Horizons Particles and Plasma team has discovered a region of cold, dense ionized gas tens of thousands of miles beyond Pluto -- the planet’s atmosphere being stripped away by the solar wind and lost to space.

“This is just a first tantalizing look at Pluto’s plasma environment,” said New Horizons co-investigator Fran Bagenal, University of Colorado, Boulder.

"With the flyby in the rearview mirror, a decade-long journey to Pluto is over --but, the science payoff is only beginning,” said Jim Green, director of Planetary Science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Data from New Horizons will continue to fuel discovery for years to come.”

Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado, added, “We’ve only scratched the surface of our Pluto exploration, but it already seems clear to me that in the initial reconnaissance of the solar system, the best was saved for last."

New Horizons is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, designed, built and operates the New Horizons spacecraft and manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. SwRI leads the mission, science team, payload operations and encounter science planning.

New Horizons Discovers Frozen Plains in the Heart of Pluto’s ‘Heart’ | NASA

 

[Fenrir]

How One Company Plans to Launch Rockets Using Beams of Microwaves

More people than ever are joining the private space race, developing new ways to loft craft into the night sky. But the Colorado space startup Escape Dynamics has an unusual plan to achieve that goal, which will use beams of microwaves to power a rocket into space.

Late last week, Escape Dynamics announced that it has successfully tested prototypes of its new spaceship engine. But unlike normal rockets, their engines use high-power microwave sources to power electromagnetic motors aboard the craft. The idea is that the removal of some of the on-board power systems would allow for craft that could make it into space in one piece, without jettisoning components—making them fully and rapidly reusable.

In reality, Escape Dynamics would need to create a large-scale energy storage system, charged from the grid or renewable sources, which would be used to drive its microwave system. Then, a series of phased array microwave transmitters would be used to focus beams of microwaves at the underbelly of the craft, where they’d power a heat exchanger that ignites on-board hydrogen to supply the rocket with energy. As the craft takes off, the microwaves would track the ship, providing continued energy as it moves through the sky.

It’s a bold aim. But tests of prototypes devices here on Earth suggest it’s plausible. Engine efficiency for space craft can be measured in units of Specific Impulse, measured in seconds, with normal chemical rockets topping out at about 460 seconds. The new Escape Dynamics system has shown to achieve 500 seconds, and the company claims that if it swapped out the prototype helium fuel source system for hydrogen that could easily become 600 seconds. That could perhaps be enough to loft a craft into orbit with just one fuel stage.

There’s still a little way to go, though. Next, the team behind the technology plans to carry out open-air tests of the set-up in the desert, before moving on to setting up a repeatable system to power drones using the technology. Only then will Escape Dynamics try to put craft into space using the technique—first sending them into space and, later, properly into orbit. There’s a lot to be done, then, but the company reckons that it payloads of over 1,000 kg into orbit by 2025.

 

[Fenrir]

NASA's 'GoreSat' Mission Just Released Its First Image of Earth

The first image of Earth released by NASA's Deep Space Climate Observatory, whose camera, a million miles away, will send home new photos every day. Source: NASA

NASA's 10-year, 3-billion-mile mission to Pluto electrified the world last week when it dispatched images of a tiny planet that's dynamic in ways even experts never anticipated. So while 3 billion miles is the current bar to ignite mission-mania in the public eye, a million-mile jaunt still isn't too shabby.

NASA has released the first image taken from the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), a collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that will study both the Sun and the Earth.

The satellite was launched in February. In early June it reached its new home, 1 million miles away. That faraway point, which astronomers refer to as L1, is a kind of gravitational balancing point between the Earth and the Sun. A satellite occupying that position remains more or less stationary relative to the two orbs.


DSCOVR will send back new images every day so that people around the world can see the whole planet in living color. The project was conceived by then-Vice President Al Gore in 1998, built within two years, and set aside. "GoreSat," as the Earth-camera became known informally, was reborn in 2008 as a sideshow to DSCOVR's main mission, which is to monitor the Sun's "weather" for NOAA and give earthlings a heads-up if electromagnetic storms are headed our way.

 

[Fenrir]

A Single Weak Strut Caused That SpaceX Rocket to Blow Up

Every strut counts, as we say. On June 28th, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon capsule stuffed full of supplies for the International Space Station blew up in mid-air, minutes after launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Today, Elon Musk revealed the cause: A single, flimsy strut.

As Musk told members of the press at a teleconference this afternoon, shortly after launch a steel strut holding a helium tank in place in the rocket’s second stage snapped. Helium bottles are stored within the rocket’s liquid oxygen fuel tank to provide pressure as the rocket consumes fuel during flight. The incident set off a chain reaction that consumed the rocket before any counter measures could be taken.

The strut, which came from a SpaceX supplier, appeared undamaged before launch. Musk assumed full responsibility for the failure and promised that, going forward, there will be rigorous in-house certification of rocket parts from suppliers, independent of any material certifications.

Another key takeaway from the failure is the need for better monitoring software within Dragon VI capsules, so that payloads can deploy parachutes and escape in the event of future mishaps. The recent failure eviscerated 4,000 pounds of supplies, including food, fuel, hardware, 30 student projects and two HoloLens devices.

SpaceX engineers have spent the last several weeks analyzing 3,000 channels of telemetry data to parse what could have happened during those final few seconds of flight. Before today, the only word we’d had from the private rocket company on the failure was a tweet from Musk, stating that it could have been the result of an overpressure event in rocket’s oxygen tank:

There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. Data suggests counterintuitive cause.

Musk has been up-front about the fact that the launch failure—the very first of its kind for SpaceX—could be a major blow to the company, which currently has a multi-billion dollar contract with NASA to ferry supplies to the ISS, and is expected to start bringing human astronauts into orbit as soon as 2017. But today, we didn’t hear any indication that SpaceX’s timeline for manned launches is going to be pushed back.

We’re moving forward, it seems—albeit a bit more cautiously than before. As SpaceX likes to remind us, rockets are hard. In this case, at least, there seems to be a straightforward solution: More Struts. Better Struts.

 

[Fenrir]

NASA Robotic Servicing Demonstrations Continue Onboard the Space Station

Robotic Servicing Demonstrations Continue on Space Station | NASA

High above Earth on the International Space Station, the Dextre robot (at end of robot arm, center right) prepares for operations on the RRM module (platform at top right of image, bottom left of platform). Credits: NASA

It's back, it's updated, and it's making great progress – all on the International Space Station (ISS).

NASA's Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM), a groundbreaking demonstration of new satellite-servicing technologies and techniques, recently resumed operations on the space station after a two-year hiatus. Within five days, the RRM team had outfitted the RRM module with fresh hardware for a series of technology demonstrations and tested a new, multi-capability inspection tool.

“The International Space Station is the ultimate test bed for new technologies,” explains Benjamin Reed, deputy project manager of the Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office (SSCO) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. “It gives us the opportunity to practice and test technologies in an environment that just cannot be replicated on the ground.”

Known by its creative team as the "little ISS experiment that could," RRM broke uncharted ground in 2011-2013 with a set of activities that debuted robotic tools and procedures to refuel the propellant tanks of existing satellites. Its second phase of operations, which took place in April and May and will resume again later in 2015, offers something entirely different and just as disruptive, says Reed.

"We’ve outfitted the RRM module with new hardware so we can shift our focus to satellite inspection, instrument life extension, and even techniques for instrument swap-out,” says Reed. Such servicing technologies could open new possibilities for owners of spacecraft in low and geosynchronous Earth orbit, he says.

RRM operations demonstrate satellite-servicing technologies using the RRM module (right) and the Dextre robot (top center). Behind them, the ISS solar array is visible. Credits: NASA

Shifting the Paradigm

Limited options currently exist for satellite owners when the unexpected occurs on orbit. If a solar array fails to deploy, or a micrometeorite strike affects a spacecraft's component, there is typically no way to see the potential cause of the anomaly or the extent of the damage.

Even healthy satellites will eventually deplete the valuable commodities that keep them, and their instruments, running at top condition. The SSCO team, the creators of RRM, want to change the status quo.

“We envision a future where robots, outfitted with a caddy stocked with tools, can help satellite owners diagnose and deliver timely aid to their spacecraft – ultimately extending their service lives,” says Frank Cepollina, veteran leader of the five servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope, and current associate director of the Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office. “Each task that RRM demonstrates gives NASA and the fledgling satellite-servicing community the confidence that these capabilities are real, that the technologies are proven, and that they can eventually work on a subsequent mission."

VIPIR’s three cameras – the Motorized Zoom Lens (left), a video borescope, (center) and a camera for situational awareness (right) were put to the test during RRM operations in May 2015. Credits: NASA

Operations on the International Space Station

The new RRM hardware launched to the ISS in two shipments, on board the Japanese HTV-4 cargo vehicle in August 2013, and the European Automated Transfer Vehicle-5 in August 2014.

The second phase of RRM activities kicked off in April with the Canadian Space Agency’s Dextre robot transferring and installing two new RRM task boards and a tool onto the existing RRM module. From there, the team dove straight into a set of operations that debuted a new, multi-capability inspection tool named VIPIR, the Visual Inspection Poseable Invertebrate Robot.

Shiny and silver, with a shape reminiscent of an old-time movie reel projector, the team built VIPIR to test a set of cameras for spacecraft inspection and anomaly diagnosis.

"When we asked the satellite community about their needs, we repeatedly heard how valuable an inspection capability could be for insurance companies and satellite manufacturers," says Reed. "Being able to see exactly how or why a component failed on orbit could mean the difference between launching more spacecraft with the same faulty design, or making a fix on the ground assembly line."

Robotic inspection capabilities can also be used for routine spacecraft maintenance and anomaly recovery, he explained, potentially saving astronauts from taking a trip into the harsh space environment.

To demonstrate a range of inspection capabilities, NASA equipped VIPIR with two unique inspection cameras, as well as a fixed camera that helps human operators on the ground control the tool during operations.

On its side, VIPIR holds its workhorse mid-range inspection camera with a miniature, motorized 8-24mm optical zoom lens, about the size of a roll of quarters. This motorized zoom lens (MZL) can resolve worksite details as tiny as 0.02 inch – an area thinner than a credit card – while maintaining a tool distance of a few feet.

For close-up inspection jobs, VIPIR also carries a tiny, color, 1.2 mm diameter camera, nestled at the end of a 34-inch deployable video borescope. Operators can command the borescope’s tip to articulate up to 90 degrees in four opposing directions. With its miniscule dimensions, this borescope camera is one of the world’s tiniest cameras, and is the smallest camera to ever be flown by NASA in space. Developed commercially, it is typically used by the medical industry for endoscopies and other similar procedures.

Held by the Dextre robot (not shown), the VIPIR tool (right) approaches the RRM module (left) to demonstrate the tool’s video borescope. Credits: NASA

Successful Operations in Space

Held by the Dextre robot and commanded from the ground, VIPIR worked through its on-orbit checklist during its operations. First, it used its zoom lens to capture images of RRM hardware and the space station. VIPIR’s borescope camera also captured imagery as it worked its way through an obstacle course on an RRM task board, like a snake burrowing through a nest.

In the end, VIPIR operations were declared a success. Collected data, now under analysis, will help the RRM team determine what type of camera system and operational techniques would be best suited for different tasks on potential future missions.

“Doing RRM on the ISS gives us a controlled, representative environment to evaluate new technologies, gain invaluable experience, and get the type of data that help inform future efforts,” says Reed. For example, the team detected resolvable image motion during the motorized zoom lens operations, which had not been present during ground testing.

Before VIPIR opened its eyes in space, another RRM-hosted experiment also saw the light of “day” during its transfer to the RRM module. A set of advanced solar cells, mounted to one of the new RRM task boards, was exposed to the space environment to provide data on how these energy-generating packs perform in space conditions. The RRM team hosted this experiment on behalf of the Photovoltaic and Electrochemical Systems Branch at the Glenn Research Center.

VIPIR’s borescope camera successfully captured imagery as it worked its way through an obstacle course on an RRM task board. Credits: NASA

What’s Next

"We’re very happy with the RRM results to date,” says Jill McGuire, RRM Project Manager,“ and we're excited to see what RRM unlocks for NASA and the satellite community.”

With these two demonstrations complete, the RRM team is taking a breath before they plunge into the next set of operations, occurring later in 2015. Using the two new task boards, the RRM team will demonstrate technologies and procedures that could be used to prepare a spacecraft for cryogen replenishment. They will also practice making the types of electrical connections that would be needed to install plug-and-play satellite instruments.

"Step by step,” says Cepollina, “these technologies are building essential capabilities that, in turn, equip us to boldly build and maintain a robust space infrastructure. Keep on watching RRM on the International Space Station. There is more to come."

 

[Fenrir]

NASA Fluid Shifts Study Advances Journey to Mars
NASA Fluid Shifts Study Advances Journey to Mars | NASA

NASA and the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) are studying the effects of how fluids shift to the upper body in space and how this adaptation to space flight affects changes in vision. This research will help prepare for a human journey to Mars. The Fluid Shift investigation is part of the groundbreaking research taking place during the One-Year Mission, in partnership between NASA's Human Research Program and Roscosmos to tackle the complex, unanswered questions of how space flight changes the human body.

NASA Image: European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, Expedition 37 flight engineer, works with a Russian Lower Body Negative Pressure (LBNP) or Chibis suit in the Zvezda service module of the International Space Station. He donned the suit to prepare for a return to gravity following a lengthy stay onboard the station.

“The Fluid Shifts investigation is very complex because it’s really a combination of three independent research studies with similar goals but different specific aims,” said Michael Stenger, Ph.D. co-principal investigator for NASA’s Fluid Shifts investigation. “We brought together investigators from NASA, Henry Ford Medical Center, University of California, San Diego and Wyle Science, Technology and Engineering Group. Additionally, we are working jointly with Roscosmos on the International Space Station to conduct the investigation and are using more crewmembers and crew time on this investigation than ever before.”

The investigation tests the hypothesis that the normal shift of fluids to the upper body in weightlessness contributes to increased intracranial pressure and decreased visual capacity in astronauts. It also tests whether this can be counteracted by returning the fluids to the lower body using a “lower body negative pressure” suit, called Chibis, provided by the Russians.

While it sounds simple in theory, everyone responds differently to the upward fluid shift experienced in space flight, and this may explain the varying severity of the visual deficits experienced by astronauts. The physiological part of the investigation is only one challenge to the study.

This is not only the largest investigation on the space station, but one of the most challenging to set up. For the first time, substantial medical equipment is being moved from the U.S. segment to the Russian segment on the space station to perform this investigation.

NASA Image: Using an ultrasound, NASA’s Human Research Program is currently testing noninvasive techniques to evaluate and measure intracranial pressure as part of the One-Year Mission research. NASA is collaborating with the Russians to test a potential countermeasure using a Russian Lower Body Negative Pressure (LBNP) or Chibis suit which could help shift fluids from the upper body to the lower body in crews before returning to Earth.

The main complication is that the Chibis suit is located in the Zvezda service module on the Russian side of the space station and cannot be moved because its medical monitoring equipment and real-time data downlink are in fixed racks. This means all the necessary hardware and equipment from the U.S. side of space station are being relocated from the opposite end of the station to the Russian module.

“From an engineering perspective, the set up for this investigation is no easy task but something we are working through,” said Erik Hougland, NASA flight project manager. “The physical and power interfaces are completely different too so we are redesigning these to work and fit the Russian outlets.”

This type of experiment may have its share of challenges but according to Stenger the information learned from this study will make it well worthwhile for not only the crew but for patients on Earth as well.

Rather than conducting invasive procedures to measure intracranial pressure such as a lumbar puncture or intraventricular catheter (drilling into the skull), the crew is using and testing new noninvasive techniques and technologies in space. For example, the cerebral and cochlear fluid pressure (CCFP) device and distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) are being used in place of the invasive methods to measure changes in intracranial pressure. These devices work by assessing characteristics of sound and pressure waves reflecting off the inner ear, which are reflective of changes in intracranial pressure. In the future, these devices may become available for patients on Earth suffering from elevated intracranial pressure, such as hydrocephalus patients. Additionally, NASA converted the Optical Coherent Tomography (OCT) imaging machine, commonly used in optometrist offices, into a portable camera so it can maneuver in a free floating area.

NASA Image: The cerebral and cochlear fluid pressure (CCFP) device is being used in place of the invasive methods to measure changes in intracranial pressure. This device works by assessing characteristics of sound and pressure waves reflecting off the inner ear, which are reflective of changes in intracranial pressure.

“We’ve never actually measured intracranial pressure inflight and its possible role in the Visual Impairment Syndrome,” said Stenger. “If we want to stay in space longer than six months to explore, we have to determine what causes these vision changes so that we can begin developing countermeasures to prevent them.”

While there is a need for these noninvasive technologies on Earth, NASA’s main focus is on the crews in space as it prepares for missions to Mars, which could be a 30-month trip. Several months without gravity is a challenge to the human body, which is why the Fluid Shifts study is so important. More than two-thirds of NASA crewmembers have experienced ocular changes during space flight. This is currently one of NASA’s highest priority medical concerns.

The One-Year Mission is the first step in determining the mechanisms associated with visual changes in space flight. NASA’s Human Research Program is carefully evaluating how the bodies of Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko respond to a year in space because the opportunity to have humans explore Mars could lead to insights, discoveries and technologies that will further humanity. And chances are, NASA won’t be doing it alone.

NASA's Human Research Program enables space exploration beyond low Earth orbit by reducing the risks to human health and performance through a focused program of basic, applied and operational research. This leads to the development and delivery of: human health, performance, and habitability standards; countermeasures and risk mitigation solutions; and advanced habitability and medical support technologies for a more compatible world wherever we explore.