The European Space Agency’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite has been cleared for takeoff, following nearly a year in limbo while the mission team awaited the go-ahead from a private launch company.
Originally expected to launch in 2008, SMOS has been in storage at Thales Alenia Space’s facilities in Cannes, France since last May, awaiting a launch appointment at the Russian Plesetsk Cosmodrome, north of Moscow. If all goes according to plan, the craft will now launch between July and October, the second ESA mission in a series of six designed to observe Earth from space and bolster an understanding of climate change. The first of the satellites in its new Living Planet Program, The Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE), is scheduled to go up March 16.
Over its lifetime of about 20 months, GOCE will map global variations in the gravity field – crucial for deriving accurate measurements of ocean circulation and sea-level change, both of which are affected by climate change.
SMOS, circulating at a low orbit of around 750 km (466 miles) above the Earth, will be the first mission dedicated to mapping soil moisture and ocean salinity. Salinity in the oceans has a significant impact on ocean circulation, which in turn helps drive the global climate. Among other applications, understanding the salinity and temperature of the seas will lead to easier predictions of the zones where hurricanes intensify. A specialized radiometer has been developed for the mission that is capable of observing both soil moisture and ocean salinity by capturing images of emitted microwave radiation around the frequency of 1.4 GHz (L-band). SMOS will carry the first-ever, polar-orbiting, space-borne, 2-D interferometric radiometer. The mission is designed to last three years.
Here’s a rundown of the final four planned crafts in the series:
ADM-Aeolus (Atmospheric Dynamics Mission), with a 2010 launch date, will collect data about the global wind profile to improve weather forecasting.
CryoSat-2, set to launch in late 2009, will determine variations in the thickness of the Earth’s continental ice sheets and marine ice cover to further our understanding of the relationship between ice and global warming. CryoSat-2 replaces CryoSat, which was lost at launch in 2005.
Swarm, due for launch in 2010, is a constellation of three satellites to study the dynamics of the magnetic field to gain new insights into the Earth system by studying Earth’s interior and its environment.
EarthCARE (Earth Clouds Aerosols and Radiation Explorer), lanching in 2013, is a joint European-Japanese mission that aims to improve the representation and understanding of the Earth’s radiative balance in climate and numerical weather forecast models.
Spirit's solar panels show a marked difference between Sol 1811 (Feb 5 - left) and Sol 1813 (Feb 7 - right). Images: NASA/JPL, collage, N.Atkinson
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Great news about the both Mars Exploration Rovers! Spirit’s dusty solar panels have been cleaned by a wind event, and Opportunity is back driving again after standing down a few days after a charged particle hit. Sprit’s solar arrays have been extremely dusty ever since a huge dust storm last year enveloped much of Mars, but a dust devil or gust of wind on Sol 1812 (Feb. 6, 2009 here on Earth) has cleaned the panels just enough to make a marked difference in power available to the intrepid rover. Before the event, dust buildup on the arrays had reached the point where only 25 percent of sunlight hitting the array was getting past the dust to be used by the photovoltaic cells. Now, it is up to 28 percent. “It may not sound like a lot, but it is an important increase,” said Jennifer Herman, and engineer for the MER team.
The cleaning boosts Spirit’s daily energy supply by about 30 watt-hours, to about 240 watt-hours from 210 watt-hours. The rover uses about 180 watt-hours per day for basic survival and communications, so this increase roughly doubles the amount of discretionary power for activities such as driving and using instruments. Thirty watt-hours is the amount of energy used to light a 30-watt bulb for one hour.
“We will be able to use this energy to do significantly more driving,” said Colette Lohr, a rover mission manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “Our drives have been averaging about 50 minutes, and energy has usually been the limiting factor. We may be able to increase that to drives of an hour and a half.”
Spirit has driven about 9 meters (about 30 feet) since getting around a rock that temporarily blocked its progress on Jan. 31. The team’s goal in coming weeks is to navigate the rover over or around a low plateau called “Home Plate” to get to an area targeted for scientific studies on the other side of Home Plate in Gusev Crater.
The last prior cleaning event that was as beneficial as this one was in June 2007. Winds cleaned off more of the dust that time, but a dust storm in subsequent weeks undid much of the benefit. Opportunity's tracks through the dunes on Mars, on Sol 1791 (Feb 5). Credit: NASA/JPL
Over on the other side of the planet in Meridiani Planum, Opportunity, drove 135.9 meters (446 feet) on Feb. 10. Opportunity stood down for a few sols as a result of a PMA (Panoramic Mast Assembly) error, due to a SEU (Single-Event Upset), when a charged particle whizzes through a transistor on the rover and flips a bit somewhere inside. “Fortunately, the motor controllers can detect and report these events, so that the rover can safely stop,” rover driver Scott Maxwell told Universe Today on February 5. “We have good reason to hope that Opportunity’s PMA is undamaged and that she’ll be back on the road shortly.”
And now she is back driving to her little heart’s (and the rover drivers’ hearts) content. Opportunity’s cumulative odometry is 14.36 kilometers (8.92 miles) since landing in January 2004, including 2.58 kilometers (1.6 miles) since climbing out of Victoria Crater on Aug. 28, 2008. She is on her way to Endeavour Crater, a huge crater about about 12 kilometers (7 miles) away.
The rovers have been taking a licking, but they still keep on ticking! Over five years now for both rovers –Yippee!
MER's camera mast, which holds several cameras, may have been hit by a cosmic ray. Credit: NASA/JPL
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The Opportunity rover recently surpassed the five-year mark on Mars. And what did she get as a birthday present? A thorough zapping by a charged particle, perhaps a cosmic ray, which has sidelined the rover for the past several days. “Opportunity stood down for a few sols as a result of a PMA (Panoramic Mast Assembly) error,” said Scott Maxwell, one of the rover drivers for the two Mars Exploration Rovers, Opportunity and Spirit. “This turned out to be due to an SEU (Single-Event Upset), as reported by the on-board motor controller.” An SEU happens when a charged particle whizzes through a transistor on the rover and flips a bit somewhere inside. “Fortunately, the motor controllers can detect and report these events, so that the rover can safely stop,” Maxwell told Universe Today. “We have good reason to hope that Opportunity’s PMA is undamaged and that she’ll be back on the road shortly.” The PMA is the rover’s “neck and head;” it is the mast that holds the Panoramic Cameras, the Navigation Cameras and the Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer. It would be a critical blow to the mission to lose any or all of these instruments. The Spirit rover may also have been hit recently by a cosmic ray, causing her to “loose her memory” for a short period. The good news is that Spirit seems to be back to normal and has resumed driving again.
No images from the Pancams or Navcams have been downloaded to Earth for the past four days, since sol 1787 (today is sol 1791 for Opportunity.) Opportunity has been traversing quite quickly on her way to Endeavour Crater, about 12 kilometers (7 miles) away. That distance would match the total distance Opportunity traveled from 2004 to mid-2008. Even at the 100-meter plus pace each sol, which “Oppy” was able to do back in December, the journey could take two years.
“The terrain Opportunity is passing through is good driving terrain,” said Maxwell, “although not quite a parking lot, but nothing she can’t handle. With the help of our “Martian satellite navigation system” (that is, the beautiful high-resolution orbital images we get from MRO), we expect to continue making good time through this dune field on the way to Endeavour.”
We’ll keep you posted on Opportunity’s status. Latest panorama from Opportunity from Sol 1770. Credit: NASA/JP
Spirit resumed driving Saturday, albeit just a short drive, after engineers performed diagnostic tests to determine the cause of “unusual behavior” by the rover last week. On Spirit’s Sol 1800, the rover did not save information into its non-volatile flash memory, so the information was lost when the rover next powered down. She also seemed to be disoriented, and was not able to locate the sun correctly.
“We may not find any data that will explain what happened on Sol 1800, but there’s no evidence that whatever happened then has recurred on subsequent sols,” said Jacob Matijevic of the rover engineering team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena. One possibility is that a cosmic-ray hit could have temporarily put Spirit temporarily into a mode that disables use of the flash memory.
Spirit drove only about 30 centimeters (1 foot) Saturday, during the 1,806th Martian sol. The rover team had commanded a longer drive, but Spirit stopped short after its right-front wheel, which no longer turns, struck a partially buried rock. The rover drivers prepared commands Monday for the next drive in a slightly different direction to get around that rock. Raw image from Spirit from her Sol 1806. Credit: NASA/JPL
Spirit is just north of a low plateau called “Home Plate.” It spent 2008 on a north-facing slope on the edge of Home Plate so that its solar panels stayed tilted toward the winter sun for maximum electrical output.
Spirit drove down off Home Plate on Jan. 6, 2009. It subsequently checked whether a patch of nearby soil, called “Stapledon,” had a high concentration of silica, like a silica-rich patch of soil Spirit discovered east of Home Plate in 2007. The earlier discovery was interpreted as evidence left by a hot-spring or steam-vent environment. Examination with Spirit’s alpha particle X-ray spectrometer confirmed silica at Stapledon. This indicates that the environment that deposited the silica was not limited to the location found earlier.
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In a move reminiscent of Star Trek’s Scotty fine-tuning the Enterprise’s performance, engineers working with the Cassini spacecraft will begin work to switch the spacecraft’s thrusters to a back-up set after noticing a degradation in performance from the main thrusters that have been in use for over 11 years, since the spacecraft launched in October of 1997. The thrusters are used for making small corrections to the spacecraft’s course and for attitude control. In mid-March, the current set of eight thrusters, referred to as branch A, will be swapped over to a redundant and identical set, branch B. In a forward thinking move, almost all Cassini engineering subsystems have redundant backup capability. And in a testament of the spacecraft’s robustness and reliability, this is only the second time during Cassini’s 11-year flight that the engineering teams have gone to a backup system.
“Ay, Captain. Auxiliary thrusters engaged!”
Cassini’s propulsion engineers began to see a lower performance from one of the thrusters on branch A in October, and recently a second branch A thruster also began now showing some degraded performance.
An extensive review with the propulsion system contractor, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, Colo., the thruster manufacturer, Aerojet, Sacramento, Calif., and propulsion experts at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., was completed last week. The recommendation was made to swap to side B as soon as is practical. Nine of Saturn's moons are in this image. Can you find them? Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Mid-March is the earliest practical opportunity to make the swap. This allows time for the team to properly test and prepare the sequence of commands that will be sent to the spacecraft. Science planners have identified a period where no high-priority science will be lost during the switch, which will be done over a seven-day window. It also is a time when no navigation maneuvers are required to maintain the spacecraft’s trajectory.
The swap involves commanding a latch valve to open hydrazine flow to the B side, and powering on some thruster control electronics. No pyrotechnic devices are involved in the swap, and the action is fully reversible if necessary.
A few years ago, the backup reaction wheel was brought online and is currently functioning as one of the three prime wheels.
Cassini successfully completed its four-year planned tour and is now in its “Equinox” extended mission operations.
Special-Effects Spirit Silhouetted on "Jibsheet" Image Note: Rover model by Dan Maas; synthetic image by Koji Kuramura, Zareh Gorjian, Mike Stetson and Eric M. De Jong. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell
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The Spirit rover appears to have some memory and mobility problems. Yes, she’s getting old, and it appears she has symptoms of aging similar to humans. On Sunday, during her 1,800th Martian day, or sol, information radioed from Spirit indicated the rover had received its driving commands for the day but had not moved. That can happen for many reasons, including the rover properly sensing that it is not ready to drive. However, other behavior on Sol 1800 was even more unusual: Spirit apparently did not record the day’s main activities into the non-volatile memory, the part of its memory that persists even when power is off. It’s almost five years to the day when Spirit had memory problems with her “flash drive,” but back then, she was just a youngster.
The team operating NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit plans diagnostic tests this week to see why she did not report some of its weekend activities, including a request to determine its orientation after an incomplete drive.
On Monday, Spirit’s controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., chose to command the rover on Tuesday, Sol 1802, to find the sun with its camera in order to precisely determine its orientation. Not knowing its orientation could have been one possible explanation for Spirit not doing its weekend drive. Early Tuesday, Spirit reported that it had followed the commands, and in fact had located the sun, but not in its expected location.
“We don’t have a good explanation yet for the way Spirit has been acting for the past few days,” said JPL’s Sharon Laubach, chief of the team that writes and checks commands for the rovers. “Our next steps will be diagnostic activities.”
Among other possible causes, the team is considering a hypothesis of transitory effects from cosmic rays hitting electronics. On Tuesday, Spirit apparently used its non-volatile memory properly.
Despite the rover’s unexplained behavior, Mars Exploration Rovers’ Project Manager John Callas of JPL said Wednesday, “Right now, Spirit is under normal sequence control, reporting good health and responsive to commands from the ground.”
Spirit has a history of being a drama queen, but just the same, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that she pulls through this latest mess alright.
Artist's concept of the current mission configuration. Credit: JPL
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Two of the hottest and most engaging topics in space and astronomy these days are 1.) exoplanets – planets orbiting other stars – and 2.) dark matter—that unknown stuff that seemingly makes up a considerable portion of our universe. There’s a spacecraft currently in development that could help answer our questions about whether there really are other Earth-like planets out there, as well as provide clues to the nature of dark matter. The spacecraft is called SIM – the Space Interferometry Mission. “We’ll be looking for other Earths around other stars,” said Stephen Edberg, System Scientist for the mission, “and by making accurate mass measurements of galaxies, we should be able to measure dark matter, as well.”
The concept for this mission has been around for awhile, and the concept has changed over time, with the telescope going through different incarnations. Currently, the mission is being called SIM Lite, as the spacecraft itself has gotten smaller, however the mirrors for the interferometer have gotten bigger.
While interferometry at radio wavelengths has been done for over 50 years, optical interferometry has only matured recently. Optical interferometry combines the light of multiple telescopes to perform as a single, much larger telescope. SIM Lite will have two visible-wavelength stellar interferometer sensors – as well as other advanced detectors, that will work together to create an extremely sensitive telescope, orbiting outside of Earth’s atmosphere.
“These are instruments that can measure positions in the sky to almost unbelievable accuracy,” said Edberg. “Envision Buzz Aldrin standing on the moon. Pretend he’s holding a nickel between thumb and forefinger. SIM can measure the thickness of that nickel as seen by someone standing on the surface of the Earth. That is one micro arc second, a very tiny fraction of the sky.” Watch a video depicting this — (Quicktime needed)
Having the ability to make measurements like that with SIM, it will be possible to infer the presence of planets within about 30 light-years from Earth, and those planets can be as small and low mass as Earth. As of now, the SIM team anticipates studying between 65 and 100 stars over a five year mission, looking for Earth analogs, planets roughly the same mass as Earth orbiting their stars in the habitable zone, where liquid water could exist.
So, for example, SIM Lite would be able to detect a habitable planet around the star 40 Eridani A, 16 light-years away, known to fans of the “Star Trek” television series as the location of Mr. Spock’s home planet, Vulcan. See a movie depicting this possible detection — (QuickTime needed).
SIM will not detect a planet directly, but by detecting the motion it causes in the parent star. “That’s a difficult task, there’s no question,” said Edberg, “but it gets complicated, based on what we see with our own solar system and what we’ve seen in other planetary systems. We know there are other systems out there that have more than one planet. Multiple planets can confound the measurements.”
But SIM should be able to detect the different sized planets orbiting other stars. SIM Lite recently passed a double blind study conducted by four separate teams who confirmed that SIM’s technology will allow the detection of Earth-mass planets among multiple-planet systems, by having the ability to measure the mass of different sized planets, to as low as Earth-mass.
“With a few exceptions all the planets we know about were detected using a method called radial velocity,” said Edberg, “where we look at the periodic motion of the star coming toward us and moving away from us on a regular basis. But when you make measurements like that, when you have no other information, you don’t know the orientation of the planets’ orbit with respect to the star, or the mass of either the star or the planet.”
With the hottest stars, radial velocity can’t be used to look for planets. But SIM Lite will be able to look at stars clear across the diagram from the coolest to the hottest stars.
“It’s a big question mark in the other planets we know about now – I believe we know only about 10% of the masses of extrasolar planets,” said Edberg.
A second planet search program, called the “broad survey,” will probe roughly 2,000 stars in our galaxy to determine the prevalence planets the size of Neptune and larger. Graphic illustrating the mass and quantity of planets SIM Lite could potentially detect. Number of terrestrial planets assumes 40% of mission time divided evenly between 1-Earth mass and 2-Earth mass surveys. Credit: JPL
SIM will also be used to measure the sizes of stars, as well as distances of stars, and be able to do so several hundred times more accurately than previously possible. SIM Lite will also measure the motion of nearby galaxies, in most cases, for the first time. These measurements will help provide the first total mass measurements of individual galaxies. All of this will enable scientists to estimate the distribution of dark matter in our own galaxy and the universe.
“Dark matter is known for its gravitational affects,” said Edberg. “It doesn’t seem to interact with normal matter as we know it. To get more clues on it, we want to know where it is.”
SIM will measure on two different scales. One is within the Milky Way Galaxy, making measurements of stars and globular clusters, and making measurements of stars that have been torn out of smaller galaxies that orbit the Milky Way.
“We can do mass model of our galaxy and find out where that mass is, including what has to be a lot of dark matter,” said Edberg. “When we make measurements of how our galaxy rotates, you find that it rotates like a solid. Instead of being Keplerian, where you think of Mercury going around the sun faster than Pluto, from all the way inside the galaxy as close as we can measure to the center, out to beyond the sun’s distance, the Milky Way rotates like it’s a solid body. It’s not a solid body, but that means it must have a density that is constant all the way through and that means there is far more matter than we can see.”
“Another thing we’d like to know is the concentration of dark matter in cluster of galaxies,” Edberg continued. “The Milky Way is part of the Local Group of galaxies, and SIM has the capability to measure stars within the individual galaxies, which in turn can be modeled to tell us where the dark matter is within the Local Group. This is cutting edge. This is one of the big mysteries right now in astrophysics and cosmology.”
Extra solar planets and dark energy may seem like two completely different things for one spacecraft to be looking for, but Edberg said this is an example of how everything is tied together.
“To get planet masses we need to know the masses of the parent stars,” he said. “SIM will make measurements of stars, particularly binary stars, and determine the masses of stars for a wide variety of star types, and be able to estimate the sizes of the planets that are causing the reflex motion. To make the measurements, and because stars with planets are going to be scattered around the sky, we need to have a grid of stars that are the fixed points to give us latitude and longitude, so to speak. If you know exactly where St. Louis and Los Angeles are, then it’s much easier to triangulate where things between them are. We need to do this all around the sky, and to do that we tie that down to the stars, and SIM can do that. These are fundamental questions that we don’t know the answers to, but SIM will help us find the answers.”
So, SIM Lite will be searching from within our neighborhood to the edge of the universe.
What’s the status of this future spacecraft?
“We’re on hold right now,” said Edberg. “We recently passed the double blind test to show that SIM can find Earth-like planets in systems that have multiple planets. SIM is also undergoing a decadal review to make the case that the astronomical science community needs to have a mission like SIM to strengthen the foundations enormously.”
Technical work is being done to prepare to build the actual instruments, but due to budgetary reasons, NASA has not set a launch date. “We think we could be ready to launch by 2015 once we get the go-ahead from NASA,” said Edberg, “and the go ahead depends on the decadal review, and the reports should be out in about a year.”
SIM Lite would provide an entirely new measurement capability in astronomy. Its findings would likely stand firmly on their own, while complimenting the capabilities of our current, as well as other planned future space observatories.
For more information about SIM check out the mission website.
[/caption]It is probably the most seductive urge for mankind: search for extraterrestrial life. There are many ways to look for life; from digging into the Martian dirt with robotic landers looking for pre-biotic compounds, to building vast radio antennae to “listen” out for distant communications either leaked or transmitted deliberately from a distant star system from a developed, intelligent civilization. However, despite our best efforts, we appear to be the only form of life for hundreds of lightyears around. It is eerily quiet out there…
Although we appear to be drawing blanks so far, it doesn’t stop us from trying to work out what we should be looking for. In the quest to find a vastly advanced alien civilization, a forthcoming Russian space telescope hopes to bridge the gap between science fiction and science fact, attempting to find evidence (or lack thereof) of observable attempts of astroengineering by an alien race…
New and exciting ways are being formulated to work out whether intelligent life does exist beyond our blue oasis. Programs such as the famous Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (METI) and the tongue-in-cheek Wait for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (WETI) are conceived to somehow interact with a sufficiently advanced alien culture (one that has the ability to communicate via radio, at least). In an engrossing entry I read in last week’s Carnival of Space Week 86, Dr Bruce Cordell (21st Century Waves) discussed the apparent paradox between UFOs and Fermi’s Paradox (in a nutshell: if aliens have visited our planet, as UFO sightings would lead us to believe, why haven’t we intercepted any kind of signal via SETI?). I was most interested with Cordell’s thoughts on optical communications that could be used by extraterrestrials to communicate with a pre-radio communication human era. Apparently, in 40 years, mankind could be generating very bright signals using 30 terrawatt optical beacons for pre-radio civilizations to see over 10 light years away, brighter than their brightest star. If there are advanced civilizations out there, why have we not seen their optical transmissions?
To summarize, we are a little confused by the lack of life in our Universe (intelligent life in any case).
So, perhaps we can find other ways to spy on our hypothetical alien neighbours. Could we build a powerful telescope to seek out structures built by alien civilizations? Possibly, according to a forthcoming Russian space-based telescope project: The Millimetron Space Telescope.
On reading an article about this subject on the Daily Galaxy, I thought I’d heard of something like this before. Sure enough, during my research on the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, IRAS (surrounding the whole Planet X controversy), I found out that work was being done to try to find the infrared signature of the hypothetical Dyson Sphere. The Dyson Sphere is a theorised example of an astroengineered structure by a significantly advanced alien race. There are many variations on this theme, including science fiction ideas of an engineered “ring” straddling a host star (as pictured top). In the case of the Dyson Sphere, this megastructure would generate infrared radiation, and analysis of IRAS data has been done to establish an upper limit on the existence of these objects. So far, no Dyson Sphere candidates have been found (within 300 light-years from Earth in any case).
To build on the IRAS survey, in 2017, Russia hopes to launch the Millimetron to observe distant stellar systems in millimeter, sub-millimeter and infrared wavelengths. This instrument has a long list of aims, but one of the extreme results that could come from this project is the detection of astroengineered megastructures.
The goal of the project is to construct space observatory operating in millimeter, sub-millimeter and infrared wavelength ranges using 12-m cryogenic telescope in a single-dish mode and as an interferometer with the space-ground and space-space baselines (the later after the launch of the second identical space telescope). The observatory will provide possibility to conduct astronomical observations with super high sensitivity (down to nanoJansky level) in a single dish mode, and observations with super high angular resolution in an interferometric mode. – The Millimetron Project.
By combining the orbiting telescope with observatories on the ground, it may be possible to create a very long baseline interferometer (VLBI) with huge baselines beyond 300,000km. This will provide unprecedented angular resolution. Alone, the large 12 metre dish will allow astronomers to probe emissions at the nano-Jansky level, where radio astronomers usually operate from <1-100 Janskys (the Jansky is a non-SI measurement of electromagnetic flux density).* With a system like this, very weakly radiating sources may be detected, possibly revealing structures such as the Dyson Sphere, or possibly sci-fi concepts like Larry Niven’s “Ringworld”.
Although I am dubious as to whether our persistent efforts to find intelligent extraterrestrial life will ever turn up positive, the search is exciting and certainly boosts the scientific process in directions we wouldn’t have necessarily examined…
A Mini-SAR strip overlain on an Earth-based, Arecibo Observatory radar telescope image. Taken Nov. 17, 2008, the south-polar SAR strip shows a part of the moon never seen before: a portion of Haworth crater that is permanently shadowed from Earth and the sun. Credit: ISRO/NASA/JHUAPL/LPI/Cornell University/Smithsonian
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A few “new” images have been released from the Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter mission. The latest are the first images from NASA’s radar instrument that’s hitching a ride on board the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) spacecraft. Called the Mini-SAR (synthetic aperture radar), NASA’s instrument recently passed initial in-flight tests and sent back its first data from Nov. 17, 2008, showing the first look inside one of the Moon’s coldest, darkest craters. The image above shows a swath from the Mini-SAR overlaid on a ground-based telescope image of Haworth Crater. The swath shows the floor of this permanently-shadowed polar crater on the moon that isn’t visible from Earth. The instrument will map both polar regions to search the insides of craters for water ice.
“The only way to explore such areas is to use an orbital imaging radar such as Mini-SAR,” said Benjamin Bussey, deputy principal investigator for Mini-SAR, from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. “This is an exciting first step for the team which has worked diligently for more than three years to get to this point.”
Bright areas represent surface roughness or slopes pointing toward the spacecraft. The data cover an area approximately 50 kilometers (31 miles) by 18 kilometers (11 miles). The two north-polar strips have been mosaicked to show the western rim of Seares crater.Credit: ISRO/NASA/JHUAPL/LPI Click for larger image
Two more radar swaths from the Moon’s north pole have been stitched together to show the western rim of Seares crater. The mosaic covers an area roughly 80 kilometers (50 miles) long by 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) wide.
“During the next few months we expect to have a fully calibrated and operational instrument collecting valuable science data at the moon,” said Jason Crusan, program executive for the Mini-RF Program, which also includes a radar instrument on the upcoming Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission
Mini-SAR is one of 11 instruments on Chandrayaan 1. Not setting any speed records in making the images available to the public, a few other images were recently released that were also taken in November 2008. Mission managers have had to deal with the spacecraft overheating slightly due to orbiting in almost continual sunlight, and therefore they decided to use only one instrument at a time. Normal operations should begin soon, where all the instruments will be able to function normally and together. Moon 3D from the TMC. Credit: ISRO
This Digital Elevation Model of the lunar surface was generated by using imagery from India’s Terrian Mapping Camera. The TMC will map topography on both sides of the Moon and prepare a 3-dimensional atlas with high spatial and altitude resolution. Lunar crater from the TMC. Credit: ISRO
This image, also from the TMC, shows details of a lunar crater. 3D anaglyph from the TMC. Credit: ISRO
Here’s one of several 3D images of different regions of lunar surface captured by TMC. By looking through 3D glasses, you get a grasp of the height of features shown here. More 3D anaglyph images are available on the ISRO site.
Chandrayaan-1 launched from India on Oct. 21, 2008 and began orbiting the moon Nov. 8.
Gullies on the dunes of Russell Crater on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
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I don’t know about the rest of you, but I could look at images from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter all day…and there are days I have spent a great deal of time perusing through the gorgeous, high-resolution images. Here are just a few of the latest images the HiRISE team has released. This first one is one of the most stunning yet. It’s part of a dune field in a crater called Russell Crater (53.3S and 12.9E.) The dune field itself is roughly 30 kilometers long, and appears to have formed from windblown material trapped by the local topography. The image was taken in October 2008, during the Mars’ southern hemisphere’s deep winter, where temperatures are low enough to allow the carbon dioxide frost to be stable. Looking closely, you can see the frost, visible on the slopes that don’t get full sunlight. The team says this region is the target of a long term monitoring program by HiRISE.
And there’s more…
Features in Moreau Crater. Credit: NASA/JPL/UA
This image is of a so called “flow feature” within Moreux Crater, located at 42N and 44.6E on the edge of Mars’ highlands/lowlands boundary. The crater itself is roughly 135 kilometers in diameter. During an impact event that creates a crater, central uplifts or mounds form on the floor of the crater in craters larger than 7km in diameter. This image focuses on a portion of the Moreux central uplift that apparently broke off and slid away, forming a type of giant landslide. Interesting hummocks, swirls and ridges are found on the surface of the landslide. There are also distinct, almost circular depressions of unknown origin near the foot of the flow. Both light and dark toned dunes later formed on this landform. Features in a volcano, Hecates Tholus. Credit: NASA/JPL/UA
This image shows features on a volcano called Hecates Tholus. This volcano is located in the northern hemisphere of Mars and is the northernmost of three volcanoes within Elysium Planitia. The “braided” channels seen in this image appear to have formed by water carving into young lava flows. Like braided rivers on Earth, they consist of a network of small channels, often separated by small streamlined “islands.” The fact that they are braided and have streamlined islands has led scientists to interpret these landforms as being created by water (fluvial) rather than by volcanic activity, and perhaps even more than one water-related event created these features, since there are fine sediments and multiple channels.
The water that potentially formed the braided channels may have been released when hot lava came into contact with ground ice.
For more images, as well as more information on these images and high resolution versions, see the HiRISE site. But watch out, you might be there for awhile — there’s lots to look at!
Full panorama of Spirit's location in Bonestell. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell University/New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
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What were you doing five years ago today? I remember trying to watch NASA TV on my computer in an effort to monitor the status of the Spirit rover that was on its way to land in Gusev Crater on Mars. The feed kept cutting out, and I know it was way behind what was happening in real time at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The scientists and engineers there were certainly more anxious than I, but even I had butterflies in my stomach. During the entry and landing, the spacecraft with Spirit aboard maintained radio contact with flight controllers at JPL through a series of tones designed to transmit the status of the lander. The flight team was even able to detect that the lander was bouncing on the surface of Mars, secure in the inflated airbags. But the tones suddenly stopped and there was no signal from the lander for several minutes. The flight control room erupted when the spacecraft sent the signal that it was sitting safely on the Red Planet.
“There was a lot of jumping, hugging and even a few tears of relief here at JPL,” said Chris Potts, who was the MER Deputy Navigation Team Chief back in 2004. “There were definitely some tense moments when we lost the signal after confirmation of bouncing on the surface. Mars just wanted us to wait a bit longer.” The wait was definitely worth it, and now five years later, Spirit and her twin rover Opportunity are still working hard on Mars’ surface. That fact is truly cause for celebration, and there are a few ways you can join in celebrating…
Another way to celebrate is to check out Scott Maxwell’s blog, “Mars and Me.” Tonight (Saturday) he is going to start making public his “diary” of the past five years, “The diary of a Mars rover driver, I suppose you could say,” Scott writes in his blog. “I’ve decided to make them public now, as a thank-you to everyone who’s followed the mission for so long, everyone who’s dreamed of being part of it. This is what it was like for one person who was, and still is, part of that mission. This is what it was like to be one person living a small part of a grand, historic adventure.” Spirit on top of Husband Hill. Credit: NASA/JPL/Dan Maas
Still another way to celebrate is to listen to Emily Lakdawalla on the Jan. 3rd 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast talk about Spirit’s five years on Mars. The transcript is also available on the site if you’d rather read it.
Also, the image at the top of this article is a full 360-degree panorama from Spirit’s panoramic camera (Pancam). Click on the image to get the full resolution, and to read the notations which indicate locations for several events of the first five Earth years since Spirit landed inside Gusev Crater.
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