NASA’s newest visitor to the Red Planet, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, is still in the process of shrinking its orbit, enroute to its final science orbit. When the spacecraft first arrived, its farthest point from the planet was 45,000 kilometers (28,000 miles). After 11 weeks of aerobraking operations, it’s reduced this distance to about 20,000 km (12,000 miles). Controllers estimate that the spacecraft will still need to sweep through Mars atmosphere 400 more times over the next 12 weeks to complete its orbital maneuvers. Its final mapping orbit will be approximately 255 to 320 km (160 to 200 mi) above the Martian surface.
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Airship Observatories Could Give the Best View
When it comes to astronomy, large telescopes rule. But if you can get your instrument into space, you bypass the atmosphere that blurs sensitive data. Unfortunately, the cost of launching observatories into space is beyond the budget of most researchers. One possible strategy is to install powerful observatories instruments onto high altitude airships, which can float above most of obscuring atmosphere. The view from the high atmosphere is almost as good as actually being in orbit, and it can be had for a fraction of the price of flying a telescope into orbit.
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What’s Up this Week – June 19-25, 2006
Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! Get ready to rock as the week opens with the another stream of the Ophiuchid meteor shower and summer studies begin in the Milky Way. Venus teams with the crescent Moon and we’ll go globular as we head out to party under the stars, because….
Here’s what’s up!
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Crescent Moon Dione
This photograph shows Saturn’s moon Dione as a thin crescent beneath the luminous F ring. The image shows the dark side of the rings, so they’re not illuminated directly by the Sun. Cassini took this photo on May 3, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Dione.
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Construction Begins on Cosmic Ray Observatory
Construction has begun on a cosmic ray observatory in the Utah desert that should be 10 times more sensitive than previous instruments. The observatory should be ready for tests by early 2007, and start full operations by summer 2007. The “Telescope Array” is made up of 564 table-shaped detectors, which will measure showers of subatomic particles that fall to Earth when cosmic rays interact with our atmosphere. It will help scientists uncover the source of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays.
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Italian Astronaut Assigned to STS-120
ESA announced today that Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli will be joining the crew of STS-120, due to launch in summer 2007. This mission will carry Node 2, an Italian-built connecting module, to the International Space Station. The station will eventually have 3 nodes; node 1 is the Unity module, which was the second ISS module orbited. Nodes 2 and 3 are being developed by ESA, and will allow further modules to be attached, including the European Columbus, US Destiny, and Japanese Kibo laboratories.
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Galaxy 16 HDTV Satellite Launched
A Zenit-3SL rocket blasted off from Sea Launch today, carrying PanAmSat’s Galaxy 16 communications satellite. The rocket lifted off from the Odyssey Launch Platform at 0750 GMT (3:50am EDT), and reached geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) nearly an hour later. The spacecraft will eventually be positioned at 99-degrees West Longitude, and provide HDTV television and data services throughout North America. This is the third launch for Sea Launch this year; three more are still planned.
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Discovery will Launch July 1, Despite Objections
It’s been a long hard road to bring the space shuttle fleet back to service after falling foam led to the destruction of Columbia. Although Discovery launched again last year, hopes sunk after the external fuel tank shed foam again, even after all the new safety measures taken by NASA. Once again, NASA thinks it’s ready for launch. This time Discovery will blast off on July 1, to link up with the International Space Station. But the launch decision didn’t come easy.
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Virgin Galactic Updates on Plans For SpaceShipTwo
Scaled Composite’s SpaceShipOne claimed the X-Prize when it reached an altitude of 100km for the second time in less than 2 weeks. Although this was a much simpler feat than reaching orbital altitude and velocities, many believed we were on the verge of a space tourism revolution. Virgin Galactic, one of the companies attempting to make a business out of suborbital flights recently unveiled details about SpaceShipTwo at a space tourism conference in London.
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Gas Giants Gobbled Up Most of Their Moons
Even though our Solar System’s gas giants vary widely in size and mass, they do have something in common. Each planet is roughly 10,000 times more massive than the combined mass of all their moons. During planetary formation, rocky moons grew out of the solid material surrounding each planet. As these moons grew larger, leftover gas slowed them down, and they fell into the planet to be consumed. The moons we see today were the last ones to form around their parent planets, after the gas had dissipated.
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