Really Rocket Science - Space Exploration

Hayabusa's Hot Today

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 06:00:36 -0700

Beautiful video footage, courtesy of NASA, of Hayabusa's re-entry after a 7-year mission and 6 billion kilometers.

Officially...

　日本時間6月13日19時51分に「はやぶさ」は無事カプセルを分離し、日本時間6月13日22時51分頃には大気圏に突入しました。
　2003年5月9日にM-Vロケットで打ち上げられてから約7年間、イトカワに着陸し、サンプル採取作業を行い、再び地球に帰還するという難事業を、幾多の困難を乗り越え成し遂げることができました。
　これまで応援していただいた皆様に感謝いたします。

　引き続き、豪州において地球に帰還したカプセルの回収作業を進めてまいります

In other words, via JAXA...

Hayabusa separated the capsule at 7:51 p.m. and reentered the atmosphere at 10:51 p.m. on June 13th, 2010 (JST).
Hayabusa was launched on May 9th, 2003 by M-V rocket and operated for approximately seven years. During its operation, JAXA was able to achieve the difficult mission including Hayabusa's sample capture attempt after its touchdown on the asteroid named Itokawa, and Hayabusa’s return to the earth overcoming many hardships. JAXA would like to appreciate every support to JAXA leading this mission to a great success.
The Hayabusa capsule has just returned to Woomera, Australia. As the next step, JAXA will move forward to the capsule recovery.

So what did it look like on the ground? Somebody from Wakayama University Institute for Education on Space was pretty excited to capture it on video, on the ground in Australia...

500 Days

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 21:29:53 -0700

More like 520 days. Six guys, locked up in a box for about a year and a half, starting 3 June 2010.

Why? To simulate a manned mission to Mars! Behold, the objectives of Mars 500...

Investigation of the influence of conditions, simulating peculiarities of a manned Martian expedition on health and working capacity of the crew;
Organization of the activity of the crew and its interaction with the ground-based control center taking into account peculiarities typical for the Martian flight;
Verification of the principles, methods and means of control and monitoring of the habitat during over-long staying of the crew in conditions of confined pressurized facility;
Simulation of the activity of the crew on the surface of Mars and dynamic operations during the flight;
Verification of the principles, methods and means of control, diagnostics and forecast of the state of health and working capacity, improvement of means of providing of medical help and prophylaxis;
Improvement of the means of collection, processing and analysis of medical and physiological information;
Creation and approbation of reference-information system, providing activity of the crew, keeping and transfer of electronic information;
Verification of means and methods of telemedicine for distant control over the state of human health;
Approbation of methods and autonomous means of psychological support;
Assessment of modern technologies, systems and means of support of life and activity and protection of humans.

Let's see if Letterman picks up on this "top 10" list for his show. More on this mission from the ESA...

Technorati Tags: esa mars+500 Bio-Medical+Problems roscosmos

VASIMR: Hammer-down in Space

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 09:26:43 -0700

Very cool technology being developed by Ad Astra Rocket Company: using plasma engines to reach Mars in 39 days. Hammer-down: space truckin at 110,000 MPH.

Excellent piece in SpaceflightNow.com on the VASIMR engine...

The company's main project is the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, or VASIMR, a highly-efficient space engine running on electricity and argon gas instead of conventional solid or liquid propellants.

Franklin Chang-Diaz, the project's chief architect, says the VASIMR engine is the most flight-ready high-power electric propulsion system anywhere in the world.

"It is transformational technology that we are developing," Chang-Diaz said. "It always has been my view that chemical approach to space transportation really was not going to get us very far."

Chemical rocket engines require spacecraft to carry all of its propellant during its mission. The VASIMR engine burns small amounts of argon gas, one of the most stable elements on the periodic table. But one of the most revolutionary features of the VASIMR design is its reliance on electricity, a renewable resource in space.

"It's very robust, but in order to get beyond the moon, and move on to Mars and beyond, we really need completely new transportation technology," Chang-Diaz said. "We view the VASIMR as the workhorse for that transportation infrastructure."

Electrically-powered plasma rockets could cut travel times for missions across the solar system. One concept championed by Chang-Diaz involves a 39-day mission to Mars, but it assumes leaps in nuclear energy production in space.

Yeah, it works alright. Watch this engine test...

Here's a video clip about the company...

And a simulation of the trip to Mars...

Technorati Tags: vasimr plasma helicon+physics

Space Bacteria

Tue, 11 May 2010 07:21:11 -0700

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is a "go" for launch on Friday, 14 May 2010 (STS-132). The mission will be the last for Atlantis and include two spacewalks...

Atlantis’ 12-day mission will deliver the Russian-built Mini Research Module-1 that will provide additional storage space and a new docking port for Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft. MRM-1, also known as Rassvet, which means dawn in Russian, will be permanently attached to the bottom port of the station’s Zarya module. MRM-1 will carry important hardware on its exterior including a radiator, airlock and a European robotic arm. Atlantis also will deliver additional station hardware stored inside a cargo carrier. Three spacewalks are planned to stage spare components outside the station, including six spare batteries, a Ku-band antenna and spare parts for the Canadian Dextre robotic arm.

One aspect of the mission not featured is the Micro-2 experiment, led by Asst. Professor Cynthia Collins of RPI. Get a sense of what this is about from Laboratory Equipment:

A team of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will send an army of microorganisms into space this week, to investigate new ways of preventing the formation and spread of biofilms, or clusters of bacteria, that could pose a threat to the health of astronauts.

The Micro-2 experiment, led by Cynthia Collins, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer, is scheduled to launch into orbit on May 14 aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis. The microorganisms will spend a week in space before returning to Earth aboard the shuttle. Within just a few hours after the shuttle’s return, Collins will be able to examine the bacteria and resulting biofilms to see how their growth and development were impacted by microgravity. The samples also will be returned to Rensselaer, to be examined using the core facilities of the Institute’s Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies.
“We know that gravity plays a key role in the development of biological systems, but we don’t know exactly how a lack of gravity affects the development of bacteria and biofilms,” Collins says. “This means while certain bacteria may be harmless on Earth, they could pose a health threat to astronauts on the International Space Station or, one day, long space flights. Our goal is to better understand how microgravity affects the relationship between humans and bacteria, so we can develop new ways of reduce the threat of biofilms to spacecraft and their crew.”

Partnering with Collins on the Micro-2 project are nanobiotechnology expert Jonathan Dordick, the Howard P. Isermann Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer and director of the Univ.’s Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, and thin films expert Joel Plawsky, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. NASA is funding the experiment.

Biofilms are complex, three-dimensional microbial communities. Bacteria commonly found in nature are often in the form of biofilms. Most biofilms, including those found in the human body, are harmless. Some biofilms, however, have shown to be associated with disease. Additionally, biofilms in locations such as hospitals — or confined locations like space shuttles — have exhibited resistance to antibiotics. This could pose a problem for astronauts, who have been shown to have an increased susceptibility to infection while in microgravity.

Collins and her team will send up eight devices, called group activation packs (GAPs) and each containing 128 vials of bacteria, aboard the shuttle. While in orbit, astronauts will begin the experiment by manipulating the sealed vials and introducing the bacteria to different membranes. At the same time, Collins will perform the same actions with identical GAPs still on Earth at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After the shuttle returns, her team will compare the resulting biofilms to see how the behavior of bacteria and development of biofilms in microgravity differed from the control group. The experiment uses BioServe Space Technologies flight-certified hardware.

The Micro-2 research team will also test if newly developed, nanotechnology-based antimicrobial surfaces – developed by Dordick at Rensselaer – can help slow the growth of biofilms on Earth and in microgravity. If successful, these new antimicrobial surfaces could one day be used in hospitals and spacecraft to help reduce the impact of biofilms on human health.

Collins’ experiment is the third Rensselaer research project to be launched into space over the past year. In August 2009, an experimental heat transfer system designed by Plawsky and Rensselaer Professor Peter Wayner was installed in the International Space Station (ISS), where it will remain for three years. In November 2009, wear-resistant, low-friction nanomaterials created by Professor Linda Schadler were blasted into orbit aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis, attached to the outer hull of the ISS, and exposed to rigors of space.

Cool experiment, but it reminds me of the 1971 film "Andromeda Strain," which I found fascinating and fearsome.

Yeah, I know: that's the guy who played the Mad Hatter on the Batman TV show in the 1960s.

Technorati Tags: micro-2+experiment space+bacteria andromeda+strain sts-132 atlantis shuttle+launch space+shuttle nasa

Tweets From Space

Tue, 11 May 2010 06:24:23 -0700

The University of Tokyo's Intelligent Space Systems Laboratory (Nakasuka) built and launched a cubesat, 4-in/10-cm square, in 2005. The low-earth orbit spacecraft is now sending out updates via Twitter, all by itself.

The tweets, in Japanese, even feature little twitpics and have assembled over 2,600 followers. Some detail, via Asiajin:

Nakasuga Lab., the University of Tokyo, introduced a bot account tweeting the real-time state of a satellite which is located in the earth low orbit. The tweet(@XI-V) keeps us update with parameters like the satellite’s surface temperature, battery voltage and where it is located over of the planet and also shows us still images shooting the planet from the satellite in the space.

As we've blogged before, real-time tweets from space has had human intervention. This is automatic, and that's kinda cool. This information is more than the poor boys at Intelsat have regarding the Galaxy-15 spacecraft. They get no telemetry data at all, but they do have some ranging info and ephemeris data.

As for CubeSat XI-V, a job well done by the rocket scientists at Nakasuka!

Technorati Tags: nakasuka cubesat+xi-v tokyo issl cubesat+tweets twitter low+earth+orbit

To Venus With AKATSUKI

Thu, 06 May 2010 06:45:11 -0700

JAXA's AKATSUKI launches in a couple of weeks.

"AKATSUKI" means "dawn" when Venus shines most brightly as the first graying of dawn appears in the east sky just prior to sunrise. The AKATSUKI is scheduled to arrive at Venus, which beautifully shines as the "morning bright star" at dawn, in the winter of 2010. The name also reflects the purpose of the PLANET-C project to newly create planetary meteorology by exploring Venus. The word "AKATSUKI", which indicates the start of a day, implies not only a beautiful scenic image, but also the power of achieving a goal, thus the name carries the thoughts and determination toward the success of the mission.

I found the video interesting...

Technorati Tags: akatsuki planet-c jaxa h2a japan

WBMSAT Satellite Industry News Bits 04/23/2010

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 18:21:22 -0700

Boeing-built U.S. Air Force "miniature space shuttle" X-37B is succesfully launched amid a cloud of secrecy about its mission.
[Seattle Post Intelligencer - 04/23/2010]

CenturyTel (CenturyLink after merging with Embarq in 2009), the country's fifth-largest local phone company, to buy Qwest, the third largest, in stock swap worth $10.6 billion.
[FierceTelecom - 04/23/2010]

BT announces the completion of its first satellite terminal in Antarctica, at one of the world’s coldest, driest, and windiest locations.
[SatNews - 04/23/2010]

Iridium extends relationship with KDDI of Japan, making it an authorized service provider of Iridium's OpenPort High-bandwidth maritime satellite communication service.
[SatNews - 04/23/2010]

MTN Satellite Communications, in partnership with ERZIA Technologies, opens new European satellite teleport in Santander, Spain.
[SatNews - 04/23/2010]

Stratos Global is providing world-renowned adventurer Ray Zhab's "Running Tunisia" expedition with Inmarsat BGANmobile broadband satellite service.
[SatNews - 04/23/2010]

Two Cobham businesses honored in 2010 Queen's Awards for Enterprise in the categories of Internatikon Trade and Innovation.
[SatNews - 04/23/2010]

Satelllite Today to bring live webcast of the SES-1 launch Saturday, April 24.
[Satellite Today - 04/23/2010]

Harris Corporation is providing NEXIO AMP advance media platform to German national public television broadcaster Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen to support HD migration and centralization of ZDF's playout center in Mainz.
[SatNews - 04/23/2010]

SES ASTRA will launch 3D demo channel on ASTRA May 4.
[SatNews - 04/23/2010]

European Commission announces financing of Alphasat telecommunications satellite to be launched in 2012, a joint effort of the European Space Agency and Inmarsat to extend high-speed voice and data to remote European areas, Africa, and the Middle East.
[UPI - 04/22/2010]

U.S. Army modifications to VSAT terminals to increase security of battlefield communications will include a change from hardware key exchanges to software key exchanges.
[Defense Systems - 04/22/2010]

First images of the sun returned by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory Satellite please research scientists.
[IndyPosted - 04/22/2010]

Schlumberger looks for buyer for its satellite unit GCS, provider of satellite antennas and specialised communications for oil rigs, tankers, and other hard-to-reach sites.
[Reuters - 04/21/2010]

Expand Networks' advanced WAN optimization technology supports satellite communications services for Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California.
[SatNews - 04/21/2010]

Gateway Communications increases presence in West Africa with signature of two deals in Guinea.
[TMCnet - 04/21/2010]

Global Satellite Engineering has partnership with Ocens data services, with Ocens using GSE's SatCollect software to reduce in-bound call expenditures.
[SatNews -04/21/2010]

Flexible commercial satellite services acquisition joint effort of GSA and DISA holds great promise, according to director of satellite communications, teleport, and services at DISA.
[Defense Systems - 04/21/2010]

Caprock launches latest value-added service offering, Crew Infotainment, reaching remote employhees across energy, maritime, and government services industries.
[SatNews - 04/21/2010]

KVH doubles their mini-VSAT Broadband network's bandwidth in the North Pacific Ocean Region.
[SatNews - 04/21/2010]

ARINC Incorporated announces that three major Asia Pacific carriers have selected the company’s GLOBALinkSM data link services for airline communications and flight operations.
[SatNews - 04/21/2010]

Barcelona Moon Team, a multidisciplinary joint venture in Spain, announces entry into Google Lunar X Prize competition challenging engineers across the globe to build and launch to the moon a privately funded spacecraft capable of exploration.
[SatNews - 04/21/2010]

Lockheed Martin gets $10 million task award to provide satellite and tactical communications for U.S. Marine Corps.
[CBS News - 04/20/2010]

Chinese villages in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu stricken by the 7.1 magnitude quake all have contact to the outside world restored, with fixed-line and mobile service being restored, and some 234 satellite phones serving the regioin.
[China Daily - 04/19/2010]

Iridium and Quake Global partner to enhance new generation of intelligent industrial satellite transceivers.
[Market Watch - 04/19/2010]

SES ASTRA signs capacity agreement with South African pay-TV operator On Digital Media for three transponders on ASTRA-4A.
[SatNews - 04/19/2010]

ViaSat wins $6.6 million MIDS-LVT add-on order to its $21.5 million Multifunctional Information Distribution System - Low Volume Terminals.
[Satellite Today - 04/20/2010]

U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command selects Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp for next generation ocean altimetry satellite GFO-2.
[SatNews - 04/19/2010]

Vizada unveils its mobile satellite communications offering for Asia-Pacific military customers at the Defense Services Asia trade show.
[SatNews - 04/19/2010]

Satellite operators Artel, Caprock, and Globecomm file complaints with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and called for a congressional and regulatory inquiry over alleged unfair business practices.
[Satellite Today - 04/19/2010]

Raytheon wins DigitalGlobe contract to provide enhance constellation-collection management system.
[Satellite Today - 04/19/2010]

SeaMobile Europe wins connectivity services contract for AG2R Transat maritime race
[Satellite Today - 04/19/2010]

Heard On The Grapevine - Galaxy 15 update - Last week it was reported that Galaxy 15 was drifting with the payload on with no control over the satellite because of failed command receivers. Information obtained this week reveals that it was the Upllink/Downlink Unit that failed June 9 due to Solar flare activity, causing an inability to process uplinked commands. Different failure mode, same result, with adjacent satellites at risk of massive interference if approached by Galaxy 15.

Samsung puts 3D TV health warning on its Australian web site, Worries include epileptic seizure or stroke, convulsions, involuntary movement, motion sickness, nausea, lightheadedness, dizziness, disorientation, and altered vision.
[samsung.com 3D TV warning]

NSR to host free webinar "SATELlite-Based Earth Observation (EO): Ready for Phase 4 of Growth?"
[NSR Webinar Registration]

NSR Industry Briefing - Growing the Government and Military COTM Market - Easier Said Than Done.
{NSR Industry Briefing]

WBMSAT PS services

Technorati Tags: satellite+news via+satellite satellite+today satcom satnews satellite+week

Fun With The Sun

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 06:16:54 -0700

Yes, it's Earth Day. So we'll follow the Sun instead. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory released it's first images and video. The spacecraft's three instruments will likely revolutionize the study of heliophysics, much as Hubble did for astronomy.

The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) will study the motions and magnetic fields at the Sun's surface to figure out what's happening inside.

The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) is a bunch of four telescopes will check out the corona, the outer layer of the Sun's atmosphere. The AIA filters will observe across ten wavelength and provide 725 km resolution.

And the Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) will gauge the Sun's energy in extreme-ultraviolet wavelengths.

Check out this short video...

Technorati Tags: solar heliophysics sun sdo nasa cme

Hayabusa Landing in WTF

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 06:50:21 -0700

WTF, in this instance, stands for the Woomera Test Facility in Australia. Hayabusa, the unmanned JAXA spacecraft that's been on a mission to return asteroid samples back to earth since launching in 2003, is set to land in Australia in June.

The report, via Adelaide Now...

Australian authorities are working with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to land the Hayabusa in the Woomera Prohibited Area in June.

Hayabusa met with the asteroid Itokawa in 2005. Since then, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency has been guiding the craft home to Earth.

Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr said this was a great example of Australia's ongoing contribution to international space programs.

"Australia is proud to support Japan in this world-first expedition," Senator Carr said.

"The Australian Government is investing $48.6 million in the Australian space sector through its new Space Policy Unit and Australian Space Research Program.

"The Space Policy Unit is the central point of contact and coordination for all civil space activities, including fostering links with international space organisations. The return of the Hayabusa is one of the many activities the unit is supporting."

Defence Minister Senator John Faulkner said Australian authorities would help ensure the recovery of the spacecraft on its return, working closely with their Japanese counterparts on the proposed path and landing of Hayabusa.

Should prove be a cool landing: a high-speed re-entry from space, then descending via parachute. I'd expect nothing but the best in HD video from JAXA, as evidenced by this promo film. Not being able to understand the narator's Japanese is not a factor...

Can't understand what "nature boy" is saying in this Bugs Bunny episode either.

Bushy Hare

Technorati Tags: woomera australia hayabusa asteroid+mission muses-c jaxa adf

Known Universe: The Video

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:39:21 -0800

By far the coolest space video ever, via the American Museum of Natural History:

After hovering over Mount Everest and the gorges that plunge to the Ganges, you are pulled through the Earth’s atmosphere to glimpse the inky black of space over Tibet’s high desert. So begins The Known Universe, a new film produced by the American Museum of Natural History that is part of a new exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City.
The magic of this film, though, happens as the inky black expands. Pulling farther and farther from Earth, you see the deep blue of the Pacific give way to night as the Sun comes into focus, the orbits of the solar system shrink smaller and smaller, the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpio stretch and distort, and, as the Milky Way receeds, the spidery structure of millions of other galaxies come into view. Then, you reach the limit of the observable universe, the afterglow of the Big Bang. This light has taken more than 13.7 billion years to reach our planet, and you return, back to Earth, to two lakes that are nestled between Mount Kailash and Mount Gurla Mandhata in the Himalayas.
The structure of The Known Universe is based on precise, scientifically-accurate observations and research. The Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History maintains the Digital Universe Atlas, the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe. The Digital Universe started nearly a decade ago. It is continually updated and is the primary resource for production of the Museum’s Space Shows such as the current Journey to the Stars, and is used in live, real-time renderings for Virtual Tours of the Universe, a public program held on the first Tuesday of every month. Last year, some 30,000 people downloaded the Digital Universe to their personal computers, and the Digital Universe will soon be updated with a more accurate and user-friendly software interface. Digital Universe is licensed to many other planetariums and theaters world-wide.
“I liken the Digital Universe to the invention of the globe,” says Curator Ben R. Oppenheimer, an astrophysicist at the Museum. “When Mercator invented the globe, everyone wanted one. He had back orders for years. It gave everyone a new perspective on where they live in relation to others, and we hope that the Digital Universe does the same on a grander, cosmic scale.”
The new film was produced by Michael Hoffman, and directed by Carter Emmart. Brian Abbot manages and Ben R. Oppenheimer curates the Digital Universe Atlas. The exhibition at the Rubin, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, opened on December 11 and continues through May 10.

The animation was done in Uniview (SCISS AB)

Technorati Tags: uniview sciss amnh hayden+planetarium american+museum+of+natural+history space+animation known+universe

Giant Cosmic Kite

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:27:29 -0800

Travelling through space using waves of light -- or photons.

Sir Arthur supported this concept, which is noted in tomorrow's New York Times Science Section :

There is a long line of visionaries, stretching back to the Russian rocket pioneers Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Fridrich Tsander and the author Arthur C. Clarke, who have supported this idea. “Sails are just a marvelous way of getting around the universe,” said Freeman Dyson, of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., and a longtime student of the future, “but it takes a long time to imagine them becoming practical.”

The solar sail receives its driving force from the simple fact that light carries not just energy but also momentum — a story told by every comet tail, which consists of dust blown by sunlight from a comet’s core. The force on a solar sail is gentle, if not feeble, but unlike a rocket, which fires for a few minutes at most, it is constant. Over days and years a big enough sail, say a mile on a side, could reach speeds of hundreds of thousands of miles an hour, fast enough to traverse the solar system in 5 years. Riding the beam from a powerful laser, a sail could even make the journey to another star system in 100 years, that is to say, a human lifespan.

Excellent graphic to go with this piece, which is typical for the NYT.

The Planetary Society is behind this project, funded my an anonymous donor.

Artists rendition of LightSail-1 by Rick Sternbach. Credit: Planetary Society

Technorati Tags: planetary+society carl+sagan lightsail arthur+clarke

"Bridget" on Mars

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:48:38 -0700

"Bridget" will be driving on Mars in 2018 or so, presumably on the other side of the street.

The new European version of a Mars rover, ExoMars, is being tested in a sand quarry in Bedfordshire:

The quarry - chosen for its similarity to Martian terrain - saw cameras and image processing software tested on the ExoMars prototype rover Bridget.

The rover will be equipped with a raft of cameras and the aim is to integrate them and the data they will send back.

The technology developed for the mission has applications not only in space science but also here on Earth.

The eventual rover will have a pair of front-mounted navigation cameras and a quartet of cameras at its corners for hazard avoidance.

It will also have a pair of scientific cameras that give it stereoscopic vision and thus depth perception, as well as a high-resolution camera for zooming in on areas of interest.

The wide-angle scientific cameras are equipped with filter wheels, which limit the light that reaches them to specific wavelengths.

Measuring the sunlight reflected off Martian terrain in these specific bands gives information on the chemical makeup of whatever is in the field of view.

The aim of the EU PRoVisG (Planetary Robotics Vision Ground Processing) project is to stitch together all of the information from the cameras, ensuring for example that the scientific results are tagged to the location at which they were taken and that the navigation cameras' views are assembled into a virtual, 3D representation of the rover's environment.

What are they looking for? Plenty:

The ExoMars mission's scientific objectives, in order of priority, are:

To search for signs of past and present life on Mars.
» Read more...

To characterise the water/geochemical distribution as a function of depth in the shallow subsurface.

To study the surface environment and identify hazards to future human missions.

To investigate the planet's subsurface and deep interior to better understand the evolution and habitability of Mars.

Video report, via ITN...

Technorati Tags: esa bridget mars+rover mars exomars

Exoplanet CoRoT-7b

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:08:06 -0700

It may not be a catchy name, but the ESO discovery is nevertheless very significant.

The longest set of HARPS measurements ever made has firmly established the nature of the smallest and fastest-orbiting exoplanet known, CoRoT-7b, revealing its mass as five times that of Earth's. Combined with CoRoT-7b's known radius, which is less than twice that of our terrestrial home, this tells us that the exoplanet's density is quite similar to the Earth's, suggesting a solid, rocky world. The extensive dataset also reveals the presence of another so-called super-Earth in this alien solar system.

The ESA's P.R. folks put it in better pespective:

The confirmation of the nature of CoRoT-7b as the first rocky planet outside our Solar System marks a significant step forward in the search for Earth-like exoplanets. The detection by CoRoT and follow-up radial velocity measurements with HARPS suggest that this exoplanet, CoRoT-7b, has a density similar to that of Mercury, Venus, Mars and Earth making it only the fifth known terrestrial planet in the Universe.

The search for a habitable exoplanet is one of the holy grails in astronomy. One of the first steps towards this goal is the detection of terrestrial planets around solar-type stars. Dedicated programmes, using telescopes in space and on ground, have yielded evidence for hundreds of planets outside of our Solar System. The majority of these are giant, gaseous planets, but in recent years small, almost Earth-mass planets have been detected demonstrating that the discovery of Earth analogues – exoplanets with one Earth mass or one Earth radius orbiting a solar-type star at a distance of about 1 astronomical unit – is within reach.

A little too hot for us. The work of astronomers continues, worldwide, day and night.

Technorati Tags: eso la+silla corot-7b esa european+southern+observatory cnes exoplanet

Jupiter Collision

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:47:10 -0700

Australian Anthony Wesley has discovered an impact on Jupiter, and confirmed by NASA's JPL. The local story, via the Sydney Morning Herald:

An amateur Australian astronomer has set the space-watching world on fire after discovering that a rare comet or asteroid had crashed into Jupiter, leaving an impact the size of Earth.

Anthony Wesley, 44, a computer programmer from Murrumbateman, a village north of Canberra, made the discovery about 1am yesterday using his backyard 14.5-inch reflecting telescope.

The impact would have occurred no more than two days earlier and will only be visible for another few days.

Check out Sky and Telescope's Red Spot Transit Table for reference.

Yeah, reminds me of the scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite...

Technorati Tags: anthony+wesley jpl nasa jupiter jupiter+collision

Brave Ulysses

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:08:15 -0700

The Ulysses mission came to a close last week. It was launched aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1990 and planned to last five years. Good show!

From the joint NASA/ESA statement:

When it began in 1977, the Out-of-Ecliptic mission (as Ulysses was then called) represented the first major joint undertaking by ESA and NASA. It was also the first ESA scientific mission to have such a high percentage of non-European lead scientists, with many of the nine investigations under US responsibility. Undoubtedly, Ulysses stands out as an excellent example of international collaboration in space.

The scientific harvest has been extraordinarily rich, with many discoveries, some anticipated, and others completely unexpected. For example, the measurements made by the instruments on board Ulysses have completely changed our view of the Sun’s magnetic influence on the charged particles that populate the space in which our satellites and astronauts have to operate, leading in turn to new models of how the Sun’s magnetic field is carried out into space by the solar wind. The breadth of scientific investigations made possible by Ulysses is truly amazing, extending from the study of processes occurring within the Sun itself to the properties of our local interstellar neighbourhood. Data from Ulysses have even been used to shed light on questions of fundamental cosmological importance.

Check out the ESA archives for details. And their anniversary video...

Technorati Tags: ulysses nasa esa heliosphere solar+wind