Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond.
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Banxing-2 snaps Tiangong-2 and Shenzhou-11 using a fisheye camera. (Credit: Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Here’s a great new view of China’s Tiangong II space station, taken by a new ‘selfie’ satellite. The Banxing-2 satellite is about the size of a desktop printer and was released from the station on Sunday. It has been nicknamed the “Selfie Stick” by Chinese officials and is taking pictures of the station and the docked Shenzhou XI spacecraft. The Chinese astronauts who boarded the station last week aren’t just joining the selfie craze; the 25 megapixel camera with wide-angle and infrared imagers has a specific job.
“The companion satellite monitors the conditions of Tiangong II and Shenzhou XI all the time, which is helpful in detecting failures,” said Chen Hongyu, chief engineer of the satellite program and a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Micro-satellite Innovation Institute.
The Banxing-2 microsatellite. Credit: China Daily.
The microsatellite as three solar panels, so can generate enough power to adjust its orbit to shoot pictures of the lab and spacecraft. Its predecessor, Banxing-1, accomplished the same mission for Shenzhou VII in 2008. The Chinese Academy of Sciences says the new model is smaller and has a higher capacity.
Now well into their 30-day mission, astronauts Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong boarded China’s second version of its “Heavenly Palace” last week. They launched Monday, October 17 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert on a Long March 2F rocket and Shenzhou-11 completed a fully automated approach and docking to Tiangong-2 on Tuesday.
During their mission, the two crew members will perform experiments from 14 different areas including biology, space life science and technological demonstrations. They have set up plant cultivation and growing experiments and have six silkworms on board for a student-based study to see how silkworms produce silk in microgravity. The crew is also doing medical testing on themselves using Tiangong II’s on board ultrasound equipment to scan their cardiovascular and pulmonary systems. They’ll also be checking for bone and muscle degradation and track any changes to their eyesight. NASA and ESA has discovered that the majority of astronauts doing long-duration space flights on the International Space Station have suffered various kinds of vision problems while in space, or upon their return.
This 30-day medium duration mission is China’s longest space mission to date, and the main task of the Tiangong crew is to help prepare for longer future missions on a larger, modular space station that, according to reports, China hopes to launch by 2018.
The last set of images taken by the Rosetta spacecraft's NAVCAM during the final month of its mission. ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0.
The Rosetta team has released the final batch of images taken by the NAVCAM during the last month of its two years of investigations at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It’s a big batch and they are absolutely stunning, but its sad to know they are the last NAVCAM images. The image set covers the period from September 2-30, 2016 when the spacecraft was on elliptical orbits that sometimes brought it to within 2 km of the comet’s surface, so you’ll see a wide variety of imagery with a variety of geology and lighting conditions.
Take a look below:
A large boulder sits precariously on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as seem by Rosetta’s NAVCAM on September 11, 2016. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0.
While these are the final NAVCAM images, there may be more images coming from the OSIRIS camera. Also, many other instruments will be releasing data, as they were active as long as possible before impact. Many of the science instruments were expected to return their last data from between 20 meters to 5 meters above the surface.
ROSINA (Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis) collected data on the density of gas around the comet and its composition while GIADA (Grain Impact Analyser and Dust Accumulator) measured the dust density.
RPC’s (Rosetta Plasma Consortium) instrument suite provided a look at interaction between the solar wind and the surface of the comet. Alice, an Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer similar to the one on New Horizons, took high resolution ultraviolet spectra of the surface. RSI (Radio Science Investigation) got the most accurate measurements of the gravity field during descent.
A variety of geology and light on on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as seem by Rosetta’s NAVCAM on September 5, 2016. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0.A field of bright bolders on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as seem by Rosetta’s NAVCAM during September 2-20. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0.
And here’s one of the last five images from Rosetta’s NAVCAM as it descended to its controlled impact on September 30 onto Comet 67P, taking incredible, close-up images during descent, this one just 18.1 km up. It shows the “drippy icing” landscape on this portion of the comet:
Single frame enhanced NavCam image taken on September 30, 2016 at 00:27 GMT, when Rosetta was 18.1 km from the center of the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The scale at the surface is about 1.5 m/pixel and the image measures about 1.6 km across. ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0.
Artist's view of the Schiaparelli lander descending to Mars on October 19. Credit: ESA
After a seven month flight, ESA’s ExoMars mission arrives at the Red Planet today, October 19. You can watch live here as the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Schiaparelli lander make their historic entry into orbit and landing.
The action starts at 9:09am ET (1:09pm GMT) when TGO fires its main engines for 134 minutes for its Mars Orbit Insertion. That burn should put the orbiter in a highly elliptical orbit which will be refined over the next few months.
Then, at 10:42am EDT (2:42pm GMT), the Schiaparelli lander will begin its six-minute entry, descent and landing through Mars’ atmosphere, coming at about 13,000 mph (21,000 kph). The aeroshell will slow the craft enough for a parachute to deploy, and at about 1 km above the surface, three hydrazine thrusters will ignite and slow Schiaparelli until it is about 6.5 feet (2 meters) above the surface. The lander will then be dropped to the Martian surface.
ESA has put together a video of what a successful landing looks like:
The ExoMars 2016 mission is a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Roscosmos. ExoMars will continue the search for biological and geologic activity on Mars, which may have had a much warmer, wetter climate in the past. The TGO orbiter is equipped with a payload of four science instruments supplied by European and Russian scientists that will investigate the source and precisely measure the quantity of the methane and other trace gases.
Artist’s impression depicting the separation of the ExoMars 2016 entry, descent and landing demonstrator module, named Schiaparelli, from the Trace Gas Orbiter, and heading for Mars. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab
Methane is interesting because it can be produced by biology, volcanoes, natural gas and hydrothermal activity. TGO will investigate how methane is produced on Mars, as well as make follow up on measurements from NASA’s Curiosity rover and other instruments and telescopes that have detected methane on Mars.
The 2016 lander will carry an international suite of science instruments and test European entry, descent and landing (EDL) technologies for the 2nd ExoMars mission, which will bring an advanced lander to Mars in 2018.
The battery powered Schiaparelli lander is expected to operate for up to eight days until the battery is depleted.
This image of haze layers above Pluto’s limb was taken by the Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. About 20 haze layers are seen; the layers have been found to typically extend horizontally over hundreds of kilometers, but are not strictly parallel to the surface. For example, scientists note a haze layer about 3 miles (5 kilometers) above the surface (lower left area of the image), which descends to the surface at the right. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI.
By the end of this week, all the data gathered by the New Horizons spacecraft during its July 2015 flyby of the Pluto system will have finished downloading to Earth and be in the hands of the science team. Bonnie Buratti, a science team co-investigator said they have gone from being able to look at the pretty pictures to doing the hard work required to study the data. During today’s press briefing from the Division of Planetary Sciences conference, the New Horizons team shared a few interesting and curious findings they’ve found in the data so far.
While the famous global view of Pluto appears to show a cloud-free dwarf planet, Principal investigator Alan Stern said the team has now take a closer look and found handful of potential clouds in images taken with New Horizons’ cameras.
“Clouds are common in the atmospheres of the solar system,” Stern said during the briefing, “ and a natural question was whether Pluto, with a nitrogen atmosphere, has any clouds.”
Stern said they’ve known since flyby that Pluto has haze layers, as seen in the backlit lead image above, as New Horizons flew away from Pluto. “They stretch more than 200 km into the sky, and we’ve counted over two dozen concentric layers,” he said.
While hazes are not clouds, Stern said they have identified candidates for clouds in high-phase images from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager and the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera.
Candidates for possible clouds on Pluto, in images from the New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager and Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera, during the spacecraft’s July 2015 flight through the Pluto system. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
“The seven candidates are all similar in that they are very low altitude,” Stern said, and they are all low-lying, isolated small features, so no broad cloud decks or fields. When we map them over the surface, they all lie near the terminator, so they occur near dawn or dusk. This is all suggestive they are clouds because low-lying regions and dawn or dusk provide cooler conditions where clouds may occur.”
Stern told Universe Today that these possible, rare condensation clouds could be made of ethane, acetylene, hydrogen cyanide or methane under the right conditions. Stern added these clouds are probably short-lived phenomena – again, likely occurring only at dawn or dusk. A day on Pluto is 6.4 days on Earth.
“But if there are clouds, it would mean the weather on Pluto is even more complex than we imagined,” Stern said.
Disappointingly, the New Horizons team has no way of confirming if these are clouds or not. “None of them can be confirmed as clouds because they are very low lying and we don’t have stereo images to tell us more,” Stern said, adding that the only way to confirm if there are condensation clouds on Pluto would be to return with an orbiter mission.
Landslides on Charon
Signs of a long run-out landslide on Pluto’s largest moon, Charon. This perspective view of Charon’s informally named Serenity Chasm shows a 200-meter thick lobate landslide that runs up against a 6 km high ridge. The images were taken by New Horizons, Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) during the spacecraft’s July 2015 flyby of the Pluto system. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
While Pluto shows many kinds of activity, one surface process scientists haven’t seen on the dwarf planet is landslides. Surprisingly, though, they have been spotted on Pluto’s largest moon, Charon.
“We’ve seen similar landslides on other rocky and icy planets, such as Mars and Saturn’s moon Iapetus, but these are the first landslides we’ve seen this far from the sun, in the Kuiper Belt,” said Ross Beyer, a science team researcher from Sagan Center at the SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center, California. “The big question is will they be detected elsewhere in the Kuiper Belt?”
Long runout landslides seen on Charon’s Serenity Chasm shows a 200-meter thick lobate landslide that runs up against a 6 km high ridge.
“With our images, we can just resolve a smooth apron and the deposit as a whole,” said Beyer, “we can’t see individual grains. But given the cold conditions on Charon, the deposit likely made of boulders of ice and rock.”
Beyer said earthquakes or an impact could have jump started the landslide on regions that were ready to slide. “The boulders may have melted and the edges and got slippery enough to begin to slide down the slope,” he said.
The images of Serenity Chasma were taken by New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 14, 2015, from a distance of 48,912 miles (78,717 kilometers).
Beyer added that while Pluto doesn’t have landslides, it does have material that appears to be moving downhill as rock falls and glacier-like flows.
Scientists from NASA’s New Horizons mission have spotted signs of long run-out landslides on Pluto’s largest moon, Charon. Arrows mark indications of landslide activity. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute.
Bright and active
New Horizons data shows that portions of Pluto’s large heart-shaped region, Sputnik Planitia, are among the most reflective in the solar system. “That brightness indicates surface activity,” said Buratti, “similar to how Saturn’s moon Enceladus is very reflective, about 100% reflective, and is very active with plumes and geysers. Because we see a pattern of high surface reflectivity equating to activity, we can infer that the dwarf planet Eris, which is known to be highly reflective, is also likely to be active.”
Next Target
New Horizons is now making a beeline for its next target, KBO 2014 MU69. Cameras on the New Horizons spacecraft have been taking long range images and MU69 is the smallest KBO to have its color measured: it has a reddish tint. Scientists have used that data to confirm this object is part of the so-called cold classical region of the Kuiper Belt, which is believed to contain some of the oldest, most prehistoric material in the solar system.
“The reddish color tells us the type of Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69 is,” said Amanda Zangari, a New Horizons post-doctoral researcher from Southwest Research Institute. “The data confirms that on New Year’s Day 2019, New Horizons will be looking at one of the ancient building blocks of the planets.”
Zangari added that they will be using the Hubble Space Telescope to better understand MU69.
“We would like to use Hubble to its find rotation rate and better understand its shape, as far as planning,” she said. “We would like to know ahead of time, if it is oblong, we would like to fly when the longest point is facing the telescope.”
Several times during the briefing, Stern indicated how having a future mission that orbited Pluto would answer so many outstanding questions the team has. He outlined one potential mission that is in the very earliest stages of study where a spacecraft could be launched on NASA’s upcoming Space Launch System (SLS) and the spacecraft could have an RTG-powered ion engine that would allow a fast-moving spacecraft the ability to slow down and go into orbit (unlike New Horizons). This type of architecture would allow for a flight time of 7.5 years to Pluto, quicker than New Horizons’ nearly 9.5 years.
This image of the Mars night side shows ultraviolet emission from nitric oxide. These emissions track the recombination of atomic nitrogen and oxygen produced on the dayside, and reveal the circulation patterns of the atmosphere. MAVEN's Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph obtained this image of Mars on May 4, 2016 during late winter in Mars Southern Hemisphere.
Credits: NASA/MAVEN/University of Colorado
Mars’ atmosphere is about 100 times thinner than Earth’s, but there’s still a lot going on in that wispy, carbon dioxide Martian air. The MAVEN spacecraft recently took some exceptional images of Mars using its Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph (IUVS), revealing dynamic and previously invisible subtleties.
MAVEN took the first-ever images of nightglow on Mars. You may have seen nightglow in images of Earth taken by astronauts on the International Space Station as a dim greenish light surrounding the planet. Nightglow is produced when oxygen and nitrogen atoms collide to form nitric oxide. This is ionized by ultraviolet light from the Sun during the day, and as it travels around to the nightside of the planet, it will glow in ultraviolet.
An image of nightglow in Earth’s atmosphere, taken from the International Space Station. Credit: NASA.
“The planet will glow as a result of this chemical reaction,” said Nick Schneider, from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, speaking today at the American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences meeting. “This is a common planetary reaction that tells us about the transport of these ingredients and around the planet and show how winds circulate at high altitudes.”
MAVEN’s images show evidence of strong irregularities in Mars’ high altitude winds and circulation patterns and Schneider said these first images will lead to an improved understanding of the circulation patterns that control the behavior of the atmosphere from approximately 37 to 62 miles (about 60 to 100 kilometers) high.
MAVEN’s Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph obtained these images of rapid cloud formation on Mars on July 9-10, 2016. Mars’ prominent volcanoes, topped with white clouds, can be seen moving across the disk and show how rapidly and extensively the clouds topping the volcanoes form in the afternoon. Credits: NASA/MAVEN/University of Colorado
MAVEN’s ultraviolet images also provide insight into cloud formation and ozone in Mars atmosphere.
The images show how water ice clouds form, especially in the afternoon, over the four giant volcanoes on Mars in the Tharsis region. Cloud formation in the afternoon is a common occurrence on Earth, as convection causes water vapor to rise.
“Water ice clouds are very common on Mars and they can tell us about water inventory on the planet,” Schneider said. “In these images you can see an incredible expansion of the clouds over the course of seven hours, forming a cloud bank that must be a thousand miles across.”
He added that this is just the kind of info scientists want to be plugging in to their circulation models to study circulation and the chemistry of Mars’ atmosphere. “This is helping us advance our understanding in these areas, and we’ll be able to study it with MAVEN through full range of Mars’ seasons.”
MAVEN’s Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph obtained images of rapid cloud formation on Mars on July 9-10, 2016. The ultraviolet colors of the planet have been rendered in false color, to show what we would see with ultraviolet-sensitive eyes. Mars’ tallest volcano, Olympus Mons, appears as a prominent dark region near the top of the image, with a small white cloud at the summit that grows during the day. Three more volcanoes appear in a diagonal row, with their cloud cover (white areas near center) merging to span up to a thousand miles by the end of the day. Credits: NASA/MAVEN/University of Colorado
Schneider explained that MAVEN’s unique orbit allows it to get views of the planet that other orbiters don’t have. One part of its elliptical orbit takes it high above the planet that allows for global views, but it still orbits fast enough to get multiple views as Mars rotates over the course of a day.
“We get to see daily events evolve over time because we return to that orbit every few hours,” he said.
This ultraviolet image near Mars’ South Pole was taken by MAVEN on July 10 2016 and shows the atmosphere and surface during southern spring. The white region centered on the pole is frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice) on the surface. Pockets of ice are left inside craters as the polar cap recedes in the spring, giving its edge a rough appearance. High concentrations of atmospheric ozone appear magenta in color, and the wavy edge of the enhanced ozone region highlights wind patterns around the pole. Credits: NASA/MAVEN/University of Colorado
In addition, dayside ultraviolet imagery from the spacecraft shows how ozone amounts change over the seasons. Ozone is destroyed when water vapor is present, so ozone accumulates in the winter polar region where the water vapor has frozen out of the atmosphere. The images show ozone lasting into spring, indicating that global winds are constraining the spread of water vapor from the rest of the planet into winter polar regions.
Wave patterns in the ozone images show wind pattern, as well, helping scientists to study the chemistry and global circulation of Mars’ atmosphere.
The 30-ton Gancedo meteorite in Argentina that was found in September, 2016 is now on display in Gancedo, Chaco, Argentina. Credit and copyright: Pelin Rodriguez.
A gigantic piece of the famous Campo del Cielo meteorite fall that was found on September 10, 2016 has been un-earthed, and is now on display in Gancedo, Chaco, Argentina. Photographer Pelin Rodriguez shared some images with Universe Today that he took of the newly found behemoth during a recent “Celebration of the Meteorite.”
And in a surprise finding during a weigh-in of both the new Gancedo meteorite and another meteorite named el Chaco that what was thought to be the biggest meteorite from the Campo del Cielo site, the Gancedo meteorite may actually be bigger. El Chaco was originally billed as 37 tons, but a recent tip of the scales put el Chaco at only 28 tons. Rodriguez said both meteorites will be weighed again in order to verify the tonnage. If confirmed, that would make the Gancedo meteorite the second largest meteorite chunk in the world after the 66-ton Hoba meteorite discovered in Namibia, Africa.
A close-up view of the Gancedo meteorite shows colorful details of the 30-ton rock. Credit and copyright: Pelin Rodriguez.
Rodriguez said the Gancedo meteorite contains many colors ranging from red, yellow, green, white and different shades of brown.
Scientists estimate about 4,500 years ago, a 600 ton space rock entered Earth’s atmosphere and broke apart, sending a shower of metallic meteorites across a 1,350 square km region northwest of Buenos Aires. The region has at least 26 craters, with the largest crater being about 100 meters wide. The AstronoR group said that the Gancedo meteorite was buried only 3 meters deep.
Rodriguez is a member of the AstronoR astronomy group in Argentina that held a two-day astronomy outreach event at the Village of Gancedo, located 312 km from Resistencia, the capital city of Chaco.
The el Chaco meteorite on display. Credit and copyright: Pelin Rodriguez.The Gancedo meteorite will be on permanent display in the village of Gancedo, Chaco, Argentina. Credit and copyright: Pelin Rodriguez.Another close-up view of the Gancedo meteorite. Credit and copyright: Pelin Rodriguez.Another view of the Gancedo meteorite. Credit and copyright: Pelin Rodriguez.The area where the Campo del Cielo or “field of the sky” meteorites are on display. Credit and copyright: Pelin Rodriguez.
Thanks to Pelin Rodriguez for sharing his images with Universe Today. You can see some additional photos and videos from the event on the AstronoR Facebook page.
On October 4, 2016, Hurricane Matthew made landfall on southwestern Haiti as a category-4 storm—the strongest storm to hit the Caribbean nation in more than 50 years. Just hours after landfall, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this natural-color image. At the time, Matthew had top sustained winds of about 230 kilometers (145 miles) per hour. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens
As Hurricane Matthew approaches the east coast of Florida, the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people is taking place in Florida and South Carolina. Forecasters say the conditions appear to be favorable for the storm to restrengthen after it caused major damage to western Haiti and eastern Cuba. Matthew is now heading toward Florida, bringing with it the potential for heavy rain, storm surges and hurricane-force winds. The expected maximum sustained winds could be 130 mph (210 km/hr), and it could be the strongest hurricane to hit the region in 11 years
The National Hurricane Center said “Matthew is moving toward the northwest near 12 mph (19 kph), and this motion is expected to continue during the next 24 to 48 hours. On this track, Matthew will be moving across the Bahamas through Thursday, and is expected to be very near the east coast of Florida by Thursday evening, Oct. 6.”
The image above was taken by NASA’s Terra satellite on October 4, 2016, showing the hurricane over the eastern tip of Cuba and the eastern-most extent over Puerto Rico. Reports say it was the strongest storm to hit the Caribbean nation in more than 50 years.
Cameras on board the International Space Station captured these views of Hurricane Matthew today (October 5) as the now Category 3 storm moved to the north of Cuba:
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center released a statement that they closed at 1 p.m. today due to the approach of the hurricane, with essential personnel preparing facilities for the storm’s arrival.
Stu Ostro, a senior meteorologist at The Weather Channel, tweeted a satellite image of the hurricane, which has gone viral, which some say shows a face with a fiery eye, teeth and a sinister smile.
WeatherUnderground is tracking the storm and as of 6:00 pm ET on October 5, this was the projected path of the storm. You can click the image (or this link) to get the current tracking data on WeatherUnderground.
Projected path for Hurricane Matthew as of October 5, 2016. Click for updated map on WeatherUnderground.com.
This animation of NOAA’s GOES-East satellite imagery from Oct. 3 to Oct. 5 shows Hurricane Matthew make landfall on Oct. 4 in western Haiti and move toward the Bahamas on Oct. 5.
NOAA said tropical storm or hurricane conditions could affect South Carolina and North Carolina later this week or this weekend, even if the center of Matthew remains offshore, adding that “it is too soon to determine what, if any, land areas might be directly affected by Matthew next week. At a minimum, dangerous beach and boating conditions are
likely along much of the U.S. east coast during the next several days.”
Screenshots of the ignition of the crew escape abort motor 45 seconds into the flight. Credit: Blue Origin/John Gardi.
Blue Origin successfully conducted an in-flight test of the New Shepard crew escape system on Wednesday. A live webcast featured stunning views of the crew capsule blasting away from the rocket booster 45 seconds into the flight with a two-second burn, and then parachuting safely back down to the ground. “We’re speechless right now and absolutely rightfully so,” said launch commentator Ariane Cornell.
Adding to the excitement, the rocket booster unexpectedly also survived the test, returning intact and making a successful vertical landing back at Blue Origin’s West Texas facility. So, yes, we were wrong about it ending in ‘fiery destruction.’ Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos had said computer simulations showed a minimal chance the booster could survive the stresses of “70,000 pounds of off-axis force delivered by searing hot exhaust,” from the capsule escape motor, and then successfully return and land vertically as it’s done previously.
Bezos was pumped about the outcome, tweeting “That is one hell of a booster,” and included this Vine video of the event:
This is the fifth launch and landing of this rocket, the fourth made just this year. The successful landing of the booster means the intact rocket will find a place of honor – perhaps in a museum or even as a lawn ornament at Blue Origin, as SpaceX did.
Here’s the webcast:
This is the fifth launch and landing of this rocket, the fourth made just this year. The successful landing of the booster means the intact rocket will find a place of honor – perhaps in a museum or even as a lawn ornament at Blue Origin, as SpaceX did.
The escape system is designed to safely separate the New Shepherd crew capsule from the rocket booster in the event of an anomaly during flight, protecting a future crew. The abort system performed as expected, as about 45 seconds after liftoff, the escape motor ignited underneath the crew capsule. The motor burned for two seconds and shot the capsule up and away from the rocket booster. After a bit of tumbling – which would have given any occupants inside a fairly wild ride –the capsule’s parachutes deployed, allowing it to land safely. It will be interesting to hear followup on the tumbling from Blue Origin’s engineers, to see how unexpected that might be.
Cornel said this was a nominal test, providing an “exhilarating but safe ride.”
Screen capture of New Shepard booster touching down. Credit: Blue Origin.
Once it was obvious the booster survived the blast from the escape system, it was fun and nail-biting to watch the booster reach the edge of space and then begin its descent. It used a series of braking maneuvers then just 8 minutes after launch as it approached the ground –still vertical — its BE-3 engine turned on and the landing legs deployed. The booster – looking only a little worse for wear — touched down gently.
Cornell said both the capsule and the booster will be retired, earning another turtle stencil.
Blue Origin stencils a tortoise on their vehicles after each successful flight. The tortoise is part of the company’s Coat of Arms. Credit: Blue Origin.
Blue Origin hopes to launch paying passengers into suborbital space by 2018 and today’s successful test means the company is on track to make it so.
Today’s successful test flight won praise from many in the industry. Eric Stallmer, presdient of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation congratulated the Blue Origin team and said, “Today’s fifth successful flight proved the New Shepard’s most critical safety features, innovative escape system technologies, and overall robustness of their system. It’s an exciting time to see these fantastic technological advancements and to witness the power of commercial industry.”
Screen capture of the New Shepard just before and after the abort motor ignition 45 seconds into the flight. Credit: Blue Origin/John Gardi.
New Shepard Pusher Escape System. Credit: Blue Origin.
The last time an in-flight escape system test for a crew capsule took place was during the Apollo program, in 1966. Now, you can watch live as Blue Origin tests the escape system for their New Shepard rocket on Wednesday, October 5, 2016 at 10:45 a.m. ET. The test was originally planned for today (Tuesday) but was postponed because of inclement weather.
You can watch live here:
As founder Jeff Bezos described the test, “Our next flight is going to be dramatic, no matter how it ends.” If all goes well, the crew capsule (empty, this time) should land rather gently. The likely end for the rocket booster, however, will be its destruction in a ball of flames.
Dramatic, indeed.
The New Shepard rocket launching from its facility in West Texas. Image: Blue Origin
Although the New Shepard has already launched successfully four times since November 2015, this fifth flight will test the system to protect future passengers from any anomaly during launch. Unlike the Apollo escape system that used an escape “tower” motor located on top of the capsule to ‘pull’ the crew cabin away from a failing booster, New Shepard’s escape system is mounted underneath the capsule, to ‘push’ the capsule away from a potentially exploding booster.
As the video below from Blue Origin explains, “Like the airbag in your car, this full envelope capsule escape system is always there if needed.” Bezos also described the test in an email:
About 45 seconds after liftoff at about 16,000 feet, we’ll intentionally command escape. Redundant separation systems will sever the crew capsule from the booster at the same time we ignite the escape motor. The escape motor will vector thrust to steer the capsule to the side, out of the booster’s path. The high acceleration portion of the escape lasts less than two seconds, but by then the capsule will be hundreds of feet away and diverging quickly. It will traverse twice through transonic velocities – the most difficult control region – during the acceleration burn and subsequent deceleration. The capsule will then coast, stabilized by reaction control thrusters, until it starts descending. Its three drogue parachutes will deploy near the top of its flight path, followed shortly thereafter by main parachutes.
While SpaceX successfully tested their escape system in May 2015, it wasn’t an in-flight test. The Crew Dragon spacecraft abort system was launched off a specially built platform at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida. The engines fired for about six seconds, instantly producing about 15,000 pounds of thrust each and lifting the spacecraft out over the Atlantic Ocean and parachuting safely into the water.
Bezos said that while they’d really like to retire this New Shepard booster and put it in a museum, that’s probably not a possibility.
New Shepard comes in for a landing with drag brakes and landing gear deployed. Image: Blue Origin.
“It’s the first ever rocket booster to fly above the Karman line into space and then land vertically upon the Earth,” he said. “But the booster was never designed to survive an in-flight escape. The capsule escape motor will slam the booster with 70,000 pounds of off-axis force delivered by searing hot exhaust. The aerodynamic shape of the vehicle quickly changes from leading with the capsule to leading with the ring fin, and this all happens at maximum dynamic pressure.”
Monte Carlo simulations show there’s some chance the booster can survive those stresses and land vertically as it’s done previously. But probably not. There will still be propellant on board and if it lands hard, as expected, Bezos said “its impact with the desert floor will be most impressive.”
Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera captured this image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from an altitude of about 16 km above the surface during the spacecraft’s final descent on September 30, 2016. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA.
With a soft “awwww” from the mission team in the control center in Darmstadt, Germany, the signal from the Rosetta spacecraft faded, indicating the end of its journey. Rosetta made a controlled impact onto Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, sending back incredible close-up images during descent, after two years of investigations at the comet.
“Farewell Rosetta. You have done the job. That was space science at its best,” said Patrick Martin, Rosetta mission manager.
Rosetta’s final resting spot appears to be in a region of active pits in the Ma’at region on the two-lobed, duck-shaped comet.
The information collected during the descent – as well as during the entire mission – will be studied for years. So even though the video below about the mission’s end will likely bring a tear to your eye, rest assured the mission will continue as the science from Rosetta is just getting started.
“Rosetta has entered the history books once again,” says Johann-Dietrich Wörner, ESA’s Director General. “Today we celebrate the success of a game-changing mission, one that has surpassed all our dreams and expectations, and one that continues ESA’s legacy of ‘firsts’ at comets.”
Launched in 2004, Rosetta traveled nearly 8 billion kilometers and its journey included three Earth flybys and one at Mars, and two asteroid encounters. It arrived at the comet in August 2014 after being in hibernation for 31 months.
After becoming the first spacecraft to orbit a comet, it deployed the Philae lander in November 2014. Philae sent back data for a few days before succumbing to a power loss after it unfortunately landed in a crevice and its solar panels couldn’t receive sunlight. But Rosetta continued to monitor the comet’s evolution as it made its closest approach and then moved away from the Sun. However, now Rosetta and the comet are too far away from the Sun for the spacecraft to receive enough power to continue operations.
“We’ve operated in the harsh environment of the comet for 786 days, made a number of dramatic flybys close to its surface, survived several unexpected outbursts from the comet, and recovered from two spacecraft ‘safe modes’,” said operations manager Sylvain Lodiot. “The operations in this final phase have challenged us more than ever before, but it’s a fitting end to Rosetta’s incredible adventure to follow its lander down to the comet.”
Compilation of the brightest outbursts seen at Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko by Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera and Navigation Camera between July and September 2015. Credit: OSIRIS: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA; NavCam: ESA/Rosetta/NavCam – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0.
Rosetta’s Legacy and Discoveries
Of its many discoveries, Rosetta’s close-up views of the curiously-shaped Comet 67P have already changed some long-held ideas about comets. With the discovery of water with a different ‘flavor’ to that of Earth’s oceans, it appears that Earth impacts of comets like 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko may not have delivered as much of Earth’s water as previously thought.
From Philae, it was determined that even though organic molecules exist on the comet, they might not be the kind that can deliver the chemical prerequisites for life. However, a later study revealed that complex organic molecules exist in the dust surrounding the comet, such as the amino acid glycine, which is commonly found in proteins, and phosphorus, a key component of DNA and cell membranes. This reinforces the idea that the basic building blocks may have been delivered to Earth from an early bombardment of comets.
Rosetta’s long-term monitoring has also shown just how important the comet’s shape is in influencing its seasons, in moving dust across its surface, and in explaining the variations measured in the density and composition of the comet’s coma.
And because of Rosetta’s proximity to the comet, we all went along for the ride as the spacecraft captured views of what happens as a comet comes close to the Sun, with ice sublimating and dusty jets exploding from the surface.
Studies of the comet show it formed in a very cold region of the protoplanetary nebula when the Solar System was forming more than 4.5 billion years ago. The comet’s two lobes likely formed independently, but came together later in a low-speed collision.
“Just as the Rosetta Stone after which this mission was named was pivotal in understanding ancient language and history, the vast treasure trove of Rosetta spacecraft data is changing our view on how comets and the Solar System formed,” said project scientist Matt Taylor.
Sequence of images captured by Rosetta during its descent to the surface of Comet 67P/C-G on September 30, 2016. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA.
Journey’s End
During the final hours of the mission on Friday morning, the instrument teams watched the data stream in and followed the spacecraft as it moved closer to its targeted touchdown location on the “head” of the 4km-wide comet. The pitted region where Rosetta landed appear to be the places where 67P ejects gas and dust into space, and so Rosetta’s swan song will provide more insight into the comet’s icy jets.
“With the decision to take Rosetta down to the comet’s surface, we boosted the scientific return of the mission through this last, once-in-a-lifetime operation,” said Martin. ““It’s a bittersweet ending, but … Rosetta’s destiny was set a long time ago. But its superb achievements will now remain for posterity and be used by the next generation of young scientists and engineers around the world.”
And so, my final day dawns.
Just a few grains are left to drain through
The hourglass of my life.
The Comet is a hole in the sky.
Rolling, turning, a black void churning
Silently beneath me.
Down there, waiting for me, Philae sleeps,
Its bed a cold cave floor,
A quilt of sparkling hoarfrost
Pulled over its head…
I have so little time left;
I sense Death flying behind me,
I feel his breath on my back as I look down
At Ma’at, its pits as black as tar,
A skulls’s empty eye sockets staring back
At me, daring me to leave the safety
Of this dusty sky and fly down to join them,
Never to spread my wings again; never
To soar over The Comet’s tortured pinnacles and peaks,
Or play hide and seek in its jets and plumes…
I don’t want to go.
I don’t want to be buried beneath that filthy snow.
This is wrong! I want to fly on!
There is so much more for me to see,
So much more to do –
But the end is coming soon.
All I ask of you is this: don’t let me crash.
Help me land softly, kissing the ground,
Coming to rest with barely a sound
Like a leaf falling from a tree.
Don’t let me die cartwheeling across the plain,
Wings snapping, cameras shattering,
Pieces of me scattering like shrapnel
Across the ice. Let me end my mayfly life
In peace, whole, not as debris rolling uncontrollably
Into Deir el-Medina…
It’s time to go, I know.
Only hours remain until I join Philae
And my great adventure ends
So I’ll send this and say goodbye.
If I dream, I’ll dream of Earth
Turning beneath me, bathing me in
Fifty shades of blue…
In years to come I hope you’ll think of me
And smile, remembering how, for just a while,
We explored a wonderland of ice and dust
Together, hand in hand.
