Category: Missions

The Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART) spacecraft that was successfully launched Friday at 10:25 a.m. PDT from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., experienced an on orbit anomaly late Friday.

After a successful rendezvous, acquisition of the target spacecraft, and approach to within approximately 300 feet, DART placed itself in the retirement phase before completing all planned proximity operations, ending the mission prematurely.

NASA is convening a mishap investigation board to determine the reason for the DART spacecraft anomaly.

A teleconference with DART project managers is scheduled for 11 a.m. PDT. Media who want to participate must register by calling the DART Newsroom at 805/605-3051.

The DART spacecraft was a flight experiment attempting to establish autonomous rendezvous capabilities for the U.S. space program. While previous rendezvous and docking efforts have been piloted by astronauts, the DART spacecraft completed the rendezvous and acquisition with no human intervention, relying on a variety of sensors and analyses to complete these functions.

For more information about DART on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/

Original Source: NASA News Release

NASA’s New Millennium Program (NMP) was conceived as a way to accelerate the use of advanced technologies into operational science missions. “It was recognized that there were significant investments being made by the United States in advanced technologies,” said Dr. Christopher Stevens, the Program Manager for NMP, “and that they had real applications to either reducing the cost or providing new capability for science missions.” However, bringing these technologies into actual science missions in space is a high risk because of the uncertainty that comes with emerging technology. NMP reduces those risks with validating new technology by flying and testing it in space. “We take technologies that are ready to go forward from the laboratory and mature them so they are ready to go to space,” said Stevens, “but the operational missions could be 10 to 20 years in the future.”

There are two types of missions or systems that NMP undertakes. One is an integrated system validation, where the whole flight system is the subject of the investigation. The second type is a subsystem validation mission, where small, stand alone experiments are carried on a space vehicle, but the vehicle is not part of the experiments.

NMP was jointly established in 1995 by NASA’s Office of Space Science and the Office of Earth Science, and in the past, missions were usually separated as being applicable to future Earth science or space science mission needs. NMP is now managed by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, and focuses on the needs of three science areas: the Earth-Sun System, Solar System Exploration, and the Universe.

The program began with the Deep Space 1 mission in 1998, which was a space science, integrated system validation. DS1’s defining technology was solar electric, or ion, propulsion. “It was known that this technology had a capability to reduce the mass needed for propulsion over conventional chemical propulsion, but nobody wanted to take the risk of flying it untested in space,” said Stevens. DS1 successfully proved the effectiveness of ion propulsion, and now subsequent missions will use this type of propulsion, including the upcoming Dawn mission.

Other successful NMP validations include improvements and cost reduction of LANDSAT-type satellites and the testing of an autonomous science spacecraft which has flight planning software that can be used on rovers as well as orbiting spacecraft to re-plan a robotic mission with no human intervention. Upcoming NMP missions yet to fly include a group of small satellites called nano-sats that will make simultaneous measurements from multiple places in space of Earth’s magnetosphere, and the testing of equipment to be used on the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, a joint mission between NASA and the European Space Agency. The only unsuccessful NMP mission to date was Deep Space 2, which was the Mars Microprobes that were part of the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander.

NASA recently announced the newest NMP mission, Space Technology 8, which is a subsystem validation project. It is a collection of four stand alone experiments that will travel to space on a small, low-cost, currently available spacecraft, dubbed a New Millennium carrier. The first experiment on ST8 is called Sail Mast, which is an ultra-light graphite mast. Applications for Sail Mast are spacecraft that require large membrane structures that need to be deployed, such as solar sails, telescope sunshades, large aperture optics, instrument booms, antennas or solar array assemblies. “There are a series of missions that have been identified on the NASA Roadmap for the future that could benefit from this capability,” said Stevens. “This will be a significant step forward in the mass of the structure. We are operating in a ? kg per meter mass range for a 30 or 40 meter boom that can be stowed compactly and has a reasonable stiffness.”

The second experiment is the Ultraflex Next Generation Solar Array System. This is a high power, extremely lightweight solar array. “This could be used for a mission that needs significant power in a lightweight, deployable array, such as for solar electric propulsion, or it could also be used on the surface of planetary bodies,” said Stevens. “We are looking at increasing the specific power of the array to greater than 170 watts per kilogram on an array that has at least 7 kilowatts of power.”

The third experiment is the Environmentally Adaptive Fault Tolerant Computing System. “Here the objective is to use commercial off the shelf processors configured in an architecture that is fault-tolerant to single event upsets caused by radiation,” said Stevens. “We want to show that this is a robust design that can be used in space without having to use radiation-hard parts, because you get a significant increase in processing speed and capability over currently available radiation-hard processors. We want to reduce the costs with high reliability.” This can be used for processing science data on board a spacecraft, and for autonomous control functions.

The final experiment on ST8 is the Miniature Loop Heat Pipe Small Thermal Management System. “What we want to do here is to reduce the thermal constraints on small spacecraft design and manage heat and the need for cooling without expending significant amounts of power,” said Stevens. This system proposes to efficiently manage thermal balance within the spacecraft by taking heat where it is being produced by, for example, electronics, and provide it to other places in the spacecraft that need heat. It has no moving parts and doesn’t require power.

The ST8 mission should be ready for launch in 2008.

In July of 2005 NASA plans to announce the technology providers for the next NMP mission. ST9 will be an integrated system validation mission. There are five different concepts that we are being considered, and all five are regarded as areas of high priority for NASA. They are:

– Solar Sail Flight System Technology
– Aerocapture System Technology for Planetary Missions
– Precision Formation Flying System Technology
– System Technology for Large Space Telescopes
– Terrain-Guided Automatic Landing System for Spacecraft

All five concepts will be studied over the next year. Following the completion of these studies, one of the five concepts will be selected for ST9. Launch time will depend on which concept is selected, but is tentatively in the 2008-2009 time frame.

Stevens has been with NMP since it was formed, and has been program manager for 3 years. He enjoys being able to demonstrate advanced technologies so that they can be incorporated into future missions. “It’s an exciting business, a very high risk business,” he said, “because advanced technology is so uncertain in regards to how long it will take and how much it will cost.” He said that the validation of the autonomous science spacecraft experiment has been especially rewarding. “The current Mars rovers are extremely labor-intensive, but NASA has not been willing to turn over the operation of a spacecraft to a software package, so I think this validation has been a major step.” Stevens said that his office has a technology infusion activity currently going on with the Mars program, looking at using this capability for future missions, like the Mars Science Laboratory rover, scheduled for launch in 2009.

Written by Nancy Atkinson

Since 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been in service to all humankind envisioning, developing, implementing, and supporting hundreds of individual launches and missions expanding humanity’s presence in, and knowledge of, the Universe. Of the 113 probe missions NASA has undertaken, several loom extremely large in the human psyche. Of these the Pioneer and Voyager probes – now “going where no craft have gone before” – are high on the list of “vaunted-achievers”.

Pioneer 10 & 11 are now mute, the last Pioneer 10 signal was received April 27, 2002. A final attempt to receive telemetry from the debilitated craft – its nuclear power source degraded – occured on February 7, 2003. But four years earlier (on February 17, 1998) Voyager 1 surpassed Pioneer 10 as the most distant craft from the Sun in space. Today, both Voyager probes sport several fully functioning science packages (cosmic ray, plasma wave, and low-energy charged particle detectors, plus a magnetometer), healthy nuclear power sources, and operational 23 watt transmitters sending back a constant stream of data collected on conditions seen in the outermost reaches of the solar system. Despite this, NASA may be forced to say “farewell” to the Dynamic Voyager Duo – leaving their voices unheard in the night of interstellar space.

Voyager 1 took to the stars from Cape Canaveral on September 5th, 1977. Some two weeks earlier (August, 20th), Voyager 2 rode its own tail of flame skyward. Flight times and dates were scheduled to leverage a unique four-planet alignment not to recur until 2153. Voyager 1 took a short-trajectory path to make a pass at Jupiter 18 months later (March 5, 1979). Voyager 2 – on a longer route – flew by on the 8th of July. Using a wide range of instruments sensing across the lower and middle em spectrum (radio to ultraviolet), scientists and technicians at the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Institute (JPL) soon published startling details of Sol’s largest planetary system. Unsurpassed image quality gave billion’s of human eyes extraordinary views only vaguely hinted at using earth-bound telescopes. Jupiter was found to possess a faint ring, volcanoes were seen to erupt from Io – inmost of the four galiliean satellites. Data related to Jupiter’s thermal characteristics and massive magnetic field was collected.

Even as data from Voyager 1 was being fully digested, mission specialists used emerging information to “fine-tune” Voyager 2’s upcoming view of Jupiter, its retinue of newly discovered satellites, fields, and rings. New information concerning this most dynamic of gas giants followed.

And so it went. Jupiter’s spinning globe propelled both probes further into space. Mission controllers watched as the probes scanned Saturn, then Uranus, and finally Neptune using on-board instrumentation. They resolved stunning details of Saturn’s exquisite ring system, and helped understand the role of “shepherd moons” in holding that ring together. They revealed unresolved features on the Ringed Wonder’s globe, and found surprisingly active storm systems. A ring system was discovered on Uranus too, and a large, powerful storm on distant Neptune was complete surprise. They even turned up a total of 22 new satellites. All of this at a cost of $865 million to US taxpayers.

The 1990’s saw Voyager 1 and 2 embark on a new quest – to explore the solar system’s Kuiper belt and beyond. Today with Voyager 1 traveling at the rate of 3.6 AU’s (Earth-Sun distances) per year, and located 95 AU’s from the Sun, it is poised to enter the interstellar medium. Despite 12 hour transmission delay times, these twin marvels of human imagination and creative technological genius still continue to “phone home” – garnering a wealth of data about the outermost reaches of the solar system at an annual cost of about $4 million a year.

This ongoing mission has been fruitful. Powerful solar storms caused a series of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) during October 2003. By mid-April 2004, Voyager 2 had detected the resulting shock waves as they slowed to combine with matter in the Merged Interaction Regions outside the orbit of Pluto. Voyager 2 measured shock speed, composition, temperature, and magnetic flux. When included with data from spacecraft located nearer to the Sun (SOHO, Mars Odyssey, Ulysses, Cassini etc.), Voyager helped show how CMEs move through the Solar System.

From NASA’s own Voyager webpage:
“For the past two years or so, Voyager 1 has detected phenomena unlike any encountered before in all its years of exploration. These observations and what they may infer about the approach to the termination shock have been the subject of on-going scientific debates. While some of the scientist believed that the passage past the termination shock had already begun, some of the phenomena observed were not what would have been expected. So the debate continues while even more data are being returned and analyzed. However, it is certain that the spacecraft are in a new regime of space. The observed plasma wave oscillations and increased energetic particle activity may only be the long-awaited precursor to the termination shock. If we have indeed encountered the termination shock, Voyager 1 would be the first spacecraft to enter the solar system’s final frontier, a vast expanse where wind from the Sun blows hot against thin gas between the stars: interstellar space.”

NASA plans to make a final decision on continued JPL mission support for these two sturdy spacecraft by April 15.

Written by Jeff Barbour

Note from Jeff: If you are an American citizen, please call, write, email, or hand-deliver a message to your congressional representatives. Tell them that the last word sent by Voyager I and Voyager II shall not go unheard. Tell them that humanity must not orphan its children – be they human, or technological. Tell them that long-after some boondoggle project funded by taxpayer dollars in support of parochial interests has fallen by the way-side, Voyager I and II will continue to be our emissaries to the Universe.

And if you are a World citizen please petition your local government to speak plainly to the leadership of the United States telling them that all the world has entrusted its hearts and minds to the continued expansion of humankind’s presence in the Cosmos.

Voyager 1, Voyager 2 – on a mission for us all.

For almost 100 years, scientists have been searching for direct evidence of the existence of gravity waves faint ripples in the fabric of spacetime predicted in Albert Einsteins theory of General Relativity. Today, the hunt for gravity waves has become a worldwide effort involving hundreds of scientists. A number of large, ground-based facilities have been developed in Europe, the United States and Japan, but the most sophisticated search of all will soon take place in space.

Speaking on Tuesday 5 April at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting in Birmingham, Professor Mike Cruise will describe a joint ESA-NASA project called LISA (Laser Interferometric Space Antenna). Scheduled for launch in 2012, LISA will comprise three spacecraft flying in formation around the Sun, making it the largest scientific instrument ever placed in orbit.

LISA is expected to provide the best chance of success in the search for the exciting, low frequency gravity waves, said Professor Cruise. However, the mission is one of the most complex, technological challenges ever undertaken. According to Einsteins theory, gravity waves are caused by the motion of large masses (e.g. neutron stars or black holes) in the Universe. The gravitational influence between distant objects changes as the masses move, in the same way that moving electric charges create the electromagnetic waves that radio sets and TVs can detect.

In the case of a very light atomic particle such as the electron, the motion can be very fast, so generating waves at a wide range of frequencies, including the effects we call light and X-rays. Since the objects which generate gravity waves are much larger and more massive than electrons, scientists expect to detect much lower frequency waves with periods ranging from fractions of a second to several hours.

The waves are very weak indeed. They reveal themselves as an alternating stretching and contracting of the distance between test masses which are suspended in a way that allows them to move. If two such test masses were one metre apart, then the gravity waves of the strength currently being sought would change their separation by only 10e-22 of a metre, or one ten thousandth of a millionth of a millionth of a millionth of a metre.

This change in separation is so small that preventing the test masses being disturbed by the gravitational effect of local objects, and the seismic noise or trembling of the Earth itself, is a real problem that limits the sensitivity of the detectors. Since each metre length in the distance between the test masses gives rise separately to the tiny changes being searched for, increasing the length of the separation between the masses gives rise to a greater overall change that could be detected. As a consequence, gravity wave detectors are made as large as possible.

Current ground-based detectors cover distances of a few kilometres and should be able to measure the millisecond periods of fast-rotating objects such as neutron stars left over from stellar explosions, or the collisions between objects in our local galactic neighbourhood. There is, however, a strong interest in building detectors to search for the collisions between massive black holes that take place during mergers of complete galaxies. These violent events would generate signals with very low frequencies- too low to be observed above the random seismic noise of the Earth.

The answer is to go into space, away from such disturbances. In the case of LISA, the three spacecraft will fly in formation, 5 million kilometres apart. Laser beams travelling between them will measure the changes in separation caused by gravity waves with a precision of about 10 picometres (one hundred thousandth of a millionth of a metre). Since the test masses on each spacecraft will have to be protected from various disturbances that are caused by charged particles in space, they must be housed in a vacuum chamber in the spacecraft. The precision required is 1,000 times more demanding than has ever been achieved in space before and so ESA is preparing a test flight of the laser measurement system in a mission called LISA Pathfinder, due for launch in 2008.

Scientists from the University of Birmingham, the University of Glasgow and Imperial College London are currently preparing the instrumentation for LISA Pathfinder in collaboration with ESA and colleagues in Germany, Italy, Holland, France, Spain and Switzerland. When LISA is operating in orbit, we expect to observe the Universe through the new window offered by gravity waves, said Cruise. In addition to neutron stars and massive black holes, we may be able to detect the echoes of the Big Bang from gravity waves emitted tiny fractions of a second after the event that started our Universe on its current evolution.

Original Source: RAS News Release

Image credit: NASA
In ecology a pioneer is a “species establishing itself in a previously barren environment”. Among human beings, pioneers “settle in unknown or unclaimed territory”. Among astrophiles, Pioneer was our first effort to probe the solar system. But it appears that NASA’s twin pioneering efforts have now made less progress toward the stars than expected and the question is “Why?”.

When NASA designs a mission assumptions are made about the craft’s operating environment. Initially, NASA had some deep concerns about sending the two Pioneer probes through the asteroid belt – after all, all those big ones could be joined by a lot of little ones!

Meanwhile NASA must plan a flight path to take the craft where it’s going. Based on route, mission payload, and other requirements, enough thrust must be provided to provide the needed lift. The big factor affecting thrust is gravity – the more you have, the more thrust you need.

One of the ingenious things about Pioneer 10 and 11 was NASA’s choice to equip the pair with two-way communications sensitive to doppler shifts. Based on frequency shifts NASA could determine craft speed relative to receiving stations on Earth. Using this data, NASA could adjust thrusters to fine tune probe trajectories toward their objectives. (Both craft flew by Jupiter while Pioneer 11 made a pass near Saturn.)

As long as the probes had fuel, mission controllers could adjust speeds and trajectories. But once out of fuel the pair could only make progress based on inertia and slingshot momentum provided by a Gas Giant.

It was during inertial flight that anomalies began to show up in the motions of the two craft. Doppler shifts showed an unexpected deceleration just outside the orbit of Uranus. At some 20 earth-sun distances (astronomical units – AUs) NASA began to see a “blue-shift” in probe transmissions. The pair continued “singing the blues” while surpassing Neptune’s orbit 10 AUs later. Today the probes have fallen short of their expected locations by a distance greater than the Earth to the Moon…

Speculation as to the cause of the blue shift abound. Pioneer 10 & 11 themselves have long been ruled out as the source. Most thinking cites an unexpected increase in gravitational pull toward the Sun. When transmitting signals back to the Earth, the craft’s electromagnetic beams “fall” further into the solar systems gravity well and that well is somehow “steeper” than once thought. Today the pair are not as far along in their outbound journey as anticipated.

The question is: “What is the source of the unexpected increase in gravity effecting the probes?”. One answer lies in “dark matter”. Strangely, another lies in “dark energy” – the opposing force to gravity in the Universe. A third is in the domain of “string theory” (two local “branes” – the equivalent of local n-dimensional “tectonic plates” – may intersect in our system). One theory relates to “back-gravitational pull” (from the opposite side of the Solar System opposite each probe). There is also the possibility that the pair are having “Solar Quadrupolar Moments” or are being slowed by unexpected material in the Kuiper Belt outside Uranus.

But when it comes to sorting out the perpetrators we can usually take Inspector Louie’s advice from the movie Casablanca: “Round up the usual suspects.”

Both probes are now more than 70 AU’s away from the Sun – but still within the solar system’s Kuiper Belt. Their deceleration pattern suggests that the source of the anomaly is widespread and constant. In a March 15, 2005 paper entitled “Pioneer anomaly: Gravitational pull due to the Kuiper belt”. Jose A. Diego and other investigators from the Institute of Astronomy of the National Autonomous University of Mexico write: “… there is no need to invoke all the dark forces of the Universe at the beginning, try first to explain this phenomenon with local, everyday physics and if this is not enough then use heavy machinery.”

And the everyday physics? Why the Kuiper Belt of course! But not exactly the same old Kuiper Belt. For Jose et al, the Kuiper Belt now begins some 10AU’s closer to the Sun – just outside the orbit of Uranus – and has a thickness of 1 AU. The team’s Kuiper Belt has gained mass to almost twice that of the Earth’s – a little less than ten times originally proposed. In addition that mass is biased toward the orbit of Uranus. The increase in mass arises from the fact that original estimates in total Kuiper Belt mass was based on small particulate sizes. By including ices of larger size – along with gases in its composition, the group believes enough mass can be accounted for to explain why the probes’ slowed down and carrier signals shifted.

The team goes on to say: “… it’s important to point out that the belt would also effect Neptune’s orbit…”. Effectively any increase in mass within the Kuiper Belt would cause Neptune to spiral in slightly closer to the Sun. The team estimates that the planet’s center of mass would shift 1.62 kilometers with each full revolution of 164.8 terran years.

“The radial density distribution of mass needed to explain the constant acceleration toward the Sun measured by the Pioneer space crafts can be explained by models of Solar System formation.” writes the team. To explain the greater concentration of mass around Uranus’ orbit they go on to describe “an inward transport of material” toward the orbit of Uranus over time.

Another potential source of unexpected slowing is drag on the craft caused by a steady stream of particles within the belt. In this scenario, the Kuiper Belt would also have more matter than originally thought but that material would be evenly distributed (to account for the constant loss seen in each probe’s momentum).

Whatever the ultimate source of the probe’s deceleration, there is no fear that – like its three earliest predecessors – the pair will reverse course and burn up in any atmosphere near us. These two Pioneers are still destined to “settle in unknown or unclaimed territory” as humankind’s first emissaries to the stars.

Written by Jeff Barbour

The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft yesterday performed ESA’s closest-ever Earth fly-by, gaining an essential gravity boost in its ten-year, 7.1 billion kilometre flight to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

At closest approach, at 22:09:14 GMT, Rosetta passed above the Pacific Ocean just west of Mexico at an altitude of 1954.74 km and a velocity relative to the Earth of 38 000 kph.

The passage through the Earth-Moon system allowed ground controllers to test Rosetta’s ‘asteroid fly-by mode’ (AFM) using the Moon as a ‘fake’ asteroid, rehearsing the fly-bys of asteroids Steins and Lutetia due in 2008 and 2010 respectively. The AFM test started at 23:01 GMT and ran for nine minutes during which the two onboard navigation cameras successfully tracked the Moon, allowing Rosetta’s attitude to be automatically adjusted.

Before and after closest approach, the navigation cameras also acquired a series of images of the Moon and Earth; these data will be downloaded early today for ground processing and are expected to be available by 8 March.

In addition, other onboard instruments were switched on, including ALICE (ultraviolet imaging spectrometer), VIRTIS (visible and infrared mapping spectrometer) and MIRO (microwave instrument for the Rosetta orbiter), for calibration and general testing using the Earth and Moon as targets.

The fly-by manoeuvre swung the three-tonne spacecraft around our planet and out towards Mars, where it will make a fly-by on 26 February 2007. Rosetta will return to Earth again in a series of four planet fly-bys (three times with Earth, once with Mars) before reaching Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014, when it will enter orbit and deliver a lander, Philae, onto the surface.

The fly-bys are necessary to accelerate the spacecraft so as to eventually match the velocity of the target comet. They are a fuel-saving way to boost speed using planetary gravity.

Yesterday’s fly-by came one year and two days after launch and highlights the valuable opportunities for instrument calibration and data gathering available during the mission’s multi-year voyage.

In just three months, on 4 July, Rosetta will be in a good position to observe and gather data during NASA’s spectacular Deep Impact event, when the Deep Impact probe will hurl a 380 kg projectile into Comet Tempel 1, revealing data on the comet’s internal structure. Certain of Rosetta?s unique instruments, such as its ultraviolet light instrument ALICE, should be able to make critical contributions to the American mission.

About Rosetta
Rosetta is the first mission designed to both orbit and land on a comet, and consists of an orbiter and a lander. The spacecraft carries 11 scientific experiments and will be the first mission to undertake long-term exploration of a comet at close quarters. After entering orbit around Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014, the spacecraft will release a small lander onto the icy nucleus. Rosetta will orbit the comet for about a year as it heads towards the Sun, remaining in orbit for another half-year past perihelion (closest approach to the Sun).

Comets hold essential information about the origin of our Solar System because they are the most primitive objects in the Solar System and their chemical composition has changed little since their formation. By orbiting and landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Rosetta will help us reconstruct the history of our own neighbourhood in space.

Original Source: ESA News Release

A satellite that will make the first map of the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space has been selected as part of NASA’s Small Explorer program. The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission will be launched in 2008.

IBEX is the first mission designed to detect the edge of the Solar System. As the solar wind from the sun flows out beyond Pluto, it collides with the material between the stars, forming a shock front. IBEX contains two neutral atom imagers designed to detect particles from the termination shock at the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space.

IBEX also will study galactic cosmic rays, energetic particles from beyond the Solar System that pose a health and safety hazard for humans exploring beyond Earth orbit. IBEX will make these observations from a highly elliptical orbit that takes it beyond the interference of the Earth’s magnetosphere. Dr. David McComas of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio will lead IBEX. It will cost approximately $134 million. The Small Explorer program (SMEX) consists of rapid, small, and focused science exploration missions.

“Explorer missions continue to efficiently address NASA’s objectives, because of the competitive character of the Explorer Program. Dr. McComas and his co-investigators submitted a compelling proposal. It had sufficient details to convince other independent scientists, engineers, technologists, cost analysts, and program managers this is an exciting and breakthrough experiment for NASA to sponsor,” said NASA’s Deputy Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, Dr. Ghassem Asrar.

“The mission will continue the NASA Explorer Program’s successful record of scientific exploration of space over the past four decades, and it supports the Vision for Space Exploration,” Asrar added.

NASA has decided to continue studying another proposed mission, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). It is the first telescope capable of detecting black holes in the local universe with 1,000 times more sensitivity than previous missions sensitive to energetic X-rays. A decision on proceeding to flight development with NuSTAR will be made by early 2006. Dr. Fiona Harrison of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. is the Principal Investigator for NuSTAR.

The Explorer Program is designed to provide frequent, low-cost access to space for physics and astronomy missions with small to mid-sized spacecraft. NASA has successfully launched six SMEX missions since 1992. The missions include the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) launched in February 2002, and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer launched in April 2003. The next SMEX mission is the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) mission, scheduled to launch in September 2006. AIM will study the Earth’s highest clouds for clues to climate change.

The selected proposals were among 29 SMEX and eight mission-of-opportunity proposals submitted to NASA in May 2003. They were in response to an Explorer Program Announcement of Opportunity issued in February 2003. NASA selected six proposals in November 2003 for detailed feasibility studies.

Funded by NASA, up to $450,000 each, these studies focus on cost, management, and technical plans, including small business involvement and educational outreach. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., manages the Explorer Program for the Science Mission Directorate.

For information and artist’s concepts of these missions on the Internet, visit: NuSTAR

For information about NASA’s Explorer Program on the Internet, visit:
http://explorers.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Original Source: NASA News Release

NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft began its 431 million kilometer (268 million mile) journey to comet Tempel 1 today at 1:47:08 p.m. EST.

Data received from the spacecraft indicate it has deployed and locked its solar panels, is receiving power and achieved proper orientation in space. Data also indicate the spacecraft has placed itself in a safe mode and is awaiting further commands from Earth.

Deep Impact mission managers are examining data returns from the mission. Further updates on the mission will be posted to http://www.nasa.gov/deepimpact and http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

Deep Impact is comprised of two parts, a “fly-by” spacecraft and a smaller “impactor.” The impactor will be released into the comet’s path for a planned collision on July 4. The crater produced by the impactor is expected to be up to the size of a football stadium and two to 14 stories deep. Ice and dust debris will be ejected from the crater, revealing the material beneath.

The fly-by spacecraft will observe the effects of the collision. NASA’s Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes, and other telescopes on Earth, will also observe the collision.

Comets are time capsules that hold clues about the formation and evolution of the Solar System. They are composed of ice, gas and dust, primitive debris from the Solar System’s distant and coldest regions that formed 4.5 billion years ago.

The management of the Deep Impact launch was the responsibility of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Deep Impact was launched from Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Delta II launch service was provided by Boeing Expendable Launch Systems, Huntington Beach, Calif. The spacecraft was built for NASA by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation, Boulder, Colo. Deep Impact project management is by JPL.

For more information about the mission on the Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov/deepimpact or NASA Deep Impact .

For information about NASA and other agency programs, visit http://www.nasa.gov .

Original Source: NASA/JPL News Release

Launch and flight teams are in final preparations for the planned Jan. 12, 2005, liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., of NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft. The mission is designed for a six-month, one-way, 431 million kilometer (268 million mile) voyage. Deep Impact will deploy a probe that essentially will be “run over” by the nucleus of comet Tempel 1 at approximately 37,000 kilometers per hour (23,000 miles per hour).

“From central Florida to the surface of a comet in six months is almost instant gratification from a deep space mission viewpoint,” said Rick Grammier, Deep Impact project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “It is going to be an exciting mission, and we can all witness its culmination together as Deep Impact provides the planet with its first man-made celestial fireworks on our nation’s birthday, July 4th.”

The fireworks will be courtesy of a 1-by-1 meter (39-by-39 inches) copper-fortified probe. It is designed to obliterate itself as it excavates a crater possibly large enough to swallow the Roman Coliseum. Before, during and after the demise of this 372-kilogram (820-pound) impactor, a nearby spacecraft will be watching the 6-kilometer-wide (3.7-mile) comet nucleus, collecting pictures and data of the event.

“We will be capturing the whole thing on the most powerful camera to fly in deep space,” said University of Maryland astronomy professor Dr. Michael A’Hearn, Deep Impact’s principal investigator. “We know so little about the structure of cometary nuclei that we need exceptional equipment to ensure that we capture the event, whatever the details of the impact turn out to be.”

Imagery and other data from the Deep Impact cameras will be sent back to Earth through the antennas of the Deep Space Network. But they will not be the only eyes on the prize. NASA’s Chandra, Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes will be observing from near-Earth space. Hundreds of miles below, professional and amateur astronomers on Earth will also be able to observe the material flying from the comet’s newly formed crater.

Deep Impact will provide a glimpse beneath the surface of a comet, where material and debris from the solar system’s formation remain relatively unchanged. Mission scientists are confident the project will answer basic questions about the formation of the solar system, by offering a better look at the nature and composition of the celestial travelers we call comets.

“Understanding conditions that lead to the formation of planets is a goal of NASA’s mission of exploration,” said Andy Dantzler, acting director of the Solar System division at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. “Deep Impact is a bold, innovative and exciting mission which will attempt something never done before to try to uncover clues about our own origins.”

With a closing speed of about 37,000 kilometers per hour (23,000 miles per hour), what of the washing machine-sized impactor and its mountain-sized quarry?

“In the world of science, this is the astronomical equivalent of a 767 airliner running into a mosquito,” said Don Yeomans, a Deep Impact mission scientist at JPL. “It simply will not appreciably modify the comet’s orbital path. Comet Tempel 1 poses no threat to Earth now or in the foreseeable future.”

Ball Aerospace & Technologies in Boulder, Colo., built NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft. It was shipped to Florida Oct. 17 to begin final preparations for launch.

Principal Investigator A’Hearn leads the mission from the University of Maryland, College Park. JPL manages the Deep Impact project for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. Deep Impact is a mission in NASA’s Discovery Program of moderately priced solar system exploration missions.

For more information about Deep Impact on the Internet, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/deepimpact.

For more information about NASA and agency programs on the Internet, visit: http://www.nasa.gov.

Original Source: NASA/JPL News Release

NASA’s Swift satellite successfully launched today aboard a Boeing Delta 2 rocket at 12:16 p.m. EST from Launch Complex 17A at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The satellite will pinpoint the location of distant yet fleeting explosions that appear to signal the births of black holes.

About 80 minutes after launch, the spacecraft was successfully separated from the Delta second stage. It has also been confirmed that the solar arrays are properly deployed.

“It’s a thrill that Swift is in orbit. We expect to detect and analyze more than 100 gamma-ray bursts a year. These are the most powerful explosions in the universe, and I can’t wait to learn more about them,” said Swift Principal Investigator Dr. Neil Gehrels, at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Each gamma-ray burst is a short-lived event, lasting only a few milliseconds to a few minutes, never to appear again. They occur several times daily somewhere in the universe, and Swift should detect several weekly.

Swift, a mission with international participation, was designed to solve the 35-year-old mystery of the origin of gamma-ray bursts. Scientists believe the bursts are related to the formation of black holes throughout the universe – the birth cries of black holes.

To track these mysterious bursts, Swift carries a suite of three main instruments. The Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) instrument, built by Goddard, will detect and locate about two gamma-ray bursts weekly, relaying a rough position to the ground within 20 seconds. The satellite will swiftly re-point itself to bring the burst area into the narrower fields of view of the on-board X-ray Telescope (XRT) and the UltraViolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT). These telescopes study the afterglow of the burst produced by the cooling ashes that remain from the original explosion.

The XRT and UVOT instruments will determine a precise arc-second position of the burst and measure the spectrum of its afterglow from visible to X-ray wavelengths. For most of the bursts detected, Swift data, combined with complementary observations conducted with ground-based telescopes, will enable measurements of the distances to the burst sources.

The afterglow phenomenon can linger in X-ray light, optical light, and radio waves for hours to weeks, providing detailed information about the burst. Swift will check in on bursts regularly to study the fading afterglow, as will ground-based optical and radio telescopes. The crucial link is having a precise location to direct other telescopes. Swift will provide extremely precise positions for bursts in a matter of minutes.

Swift notifies the astronomical community via the Goddard-maintained Gamma-ray Burst Coordinates Network. The Swift Mission Operations Center, operated from Penn State’s University Park, Pa., campus, controls the Swift observatory and provides continuous burst information.

“Swift can respond almost instantly to any astrophysical phenomenon, and I suspect that we’re going to be making many discoveries which are currently unpredicted,” said Swift Mission Director John Nousek, Penn State professor of astronomy and astrophysics.

Goddard manages Swift. Swift is a NASA mission with the participation of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council in the United Kingdom.

Swift was built through collaboration with national laboratories, universities and international partners, including General Dynamics, Gilbert, Arizona; Penn State University; Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico; Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, Calif.; Mullard Space Science Laboratory in Dorking, Surrey, England; the University of Leicester, England; ASI-Malindi ground station in Africa; the ASI Science Data Center in Italy; and the Brera Observatory in Milan, Italy.

For more information about Swift on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/swift and http://swift.gsfc.nasa.gov

Original Source: NASA News Release