Science Archives

June 4, 2017June 4, 2017 by Ken Kremer

1st Recycled SpaceX Dragon Blasts Off for Space Station on 100th Flight from Pad 39A with Science Rich Cargo and Bonus Booster Landing: Gallery

Blastoff of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 5:07 p.m. EDT on June 3, 2017, on Dragon CRS-11 resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – After threatening stormy skies over the Florida Space Coast miraculously parted just in the nick of time, the first ever recycled SpaceX Dragon cargo freighter blasted off on the 100th flight from historic pad 39A on the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) late Saturday afternoon June 3 – bound for the International Space Station (ISS) loaded with a science rich cargo from NASA for the multinational crew.

Nearly simultaneously the first stage booster accomplished another heart stopping and stupendous ground landing back at the Cape accompanied by multiple shockingly loud sonic booms screeching out dozens of miles (km) in all directions across the space coast region.

SpaceX Falcon 9 booster deploys quartet of landing legs moments before precision propulsive ground touchdown at Landing Zone 1 on Canaveral Air Force Station barely nine minutes after liftoff from Launch Complex 39A on 3 June 2017 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the Dragon CRS-11 resupply mission to the International Space Station for NASA. Credit: Ken Kremer/Kenkremer.com

Liftoff of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the unmanned Dragon cargo freighter from seaside Launch Complex 39A at KSC in Florida took place during an instantaneous launch window at 5:07 p.m. EDT Saturday, June 3, after a predicted downpour held off just long enough for the SpaceX launch team to get the rocket safely off the ground.

The launch took place after a 48 hour scrub from Thursday June 1 forced by stormy weather and lightning strikes came within 10 miles of pad 39A less than 30 minutes from the planned liftoff time.

The backup crew of 40 new micestonauts are also aboard for a first of its kind osteoporosis science study – that seeks to stem the loss of bone density afflicting millions of people on Earth and astronauts crews in space by testing an experimental drug called NELL-1. The 40 originally designated mice lost their coveted slot and were swapped out Friday due to the scrub.

The 213-foot-tall (65-meter-tall) SpaceX Falcon 9 roared to life off pad 39A upon ignition of the 9 Merlin 1 D first stage engines generating 1.7 million pounds of liftoff thrust and successfully delivered the Dragon bolted on top to low Earth orbit on course for the space station and jam packed with three tons of essential cargo.

Loading of the densified liquid oxygen and RP-1 propellants into the Falcon 9 first and second stages starting about 70 minutes prior to ignition. Everything went off without a hitch.

Final descent of the SpaceX Falcon 9 1st stage landing as seen from the NASA Causeway under heavily overcast skies after Jun 3, 2017 launch from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. The booster successfully soft landed upright at Landing Zone-1 (LZ-1) accompanied by multiple sonic booms at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, about 8 minutes after launch to the International Space Station (ISS). Note SpaceX logo lettering visible on booster skin. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

Dragon reached its preliminary orbit 10 minutes after launch and deployed its power generating solar arrays. It now set out on a carefully choreographed series of thruster firings to reach the space station Monday morning.

Following stage separation at 2 min 25 sec after liftoff, the first stage began a series of three burns (boostback, entry and landing) to carry out a precision propulsive ground landing back at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL at Landing Zone-1 (LZ-1).

SpaceX Falcon 9 booster starts landing leg deployment moments before precision propulsive ground touchdown at Landing Zone 1 on Canaveral Air Force Station barely eight minutes after liftoff from pad 39A on 3 June 2017 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the Dragon CRS-11 resupply mission to the International Space Station for NASA. Credit: Ken Kremer/Kenkremer.com

The 156-foot-tall (47-meter-tall) first stage successfully touched down upright at LZ-1 some 8 minutes after liftoff as I witnessed from the NASA Causeway and seen in photos from myself and colleagues herein.

LZ-1 is located about 9 miles (14 kilometers) south of the starting point at pad 39A.

Descent of SpaceX Falcon 9 1st stage towards Landing Zone-1 at Cape Canaveral after Jun 3, 2017 launch from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Credit: Julian Leek

Thus overall SpaceX has now successfully recovered 11 boosters; 5 by land and 6 by sea, over the past 18 months – in a feat straight out of science fiction but aimed at drastically slashing the cost of access to space as envisioned by SpaceX billionaire CEO and founder Elon Musk.

Another significant milestone for this flight is that it features the first reuse of a previously launched Dragon. It previously launched on the CRS-4 resupply mission.

The recycled Dragon has undergone some refurbishments to requalify it for flight but most of the structure is intact, according to SpaceX VP for Mission Assurance Hans Koenigsmann.

The 20-foot high, 12-foot-diameter Dragon is carrying almost 5,970 pounds of science experiments and research instruments, crew supplies, food water, clothing, hardware, gear and spare parts to the million pound orbiting laboratory complex. This will support over 62 of the 250 research investigations and experiments being conducted by Expedition 52 and 53 crew members.

See detailed CRS-11 cargo mission cargo below.

Blastoff of SpaceX Falcon 9 with reused Dragon CRS-11 cargo craft from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:07 p.m. on June 3, 2017. Credit: Julian Leek

Dragon CRS-11 marks SpaceX’s eleventh contracted commercial resupply services (CRS) mission to the International Space Station for NASA since 2012.

Falcon 9 streaked to orbit in spectacular fashion darting in and out of clouds for the hordes of onlookers and spectators who had gathered from around the globe to witness the spectacle of a rocket launch and booster landing first hand.

Recycled SpaceX Dragon CRS-11 cargo craft lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:07 p.m. June 3, 2017 carrying 3 tons of research equipment, cargo and supplies to Earth orbit and the International Space Station. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

Dragon is loaded with “major experiments that will look into the human body and out into the galaxy.”

The flight will deliver investigations and facilities that study neutron stars, osteoporosis, solar panels, tools for Earth-observation, and more.

The unpressurized trunk of the spacecraft also will transport 3 payloads for science and technology experiments and demonstrations.

The truck payloads include the Roll-Out Solar Array (ROSA) solar panels, the Multiple User System for Earth Sensing (MUSES) facility which hosts Earth-viewing instruments and tools for Earth-observation and equipment to study neutron stars with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) payload.

NICER is the first ever space mission to study the rapidly spinning neutron stars – the densest objects in the universe. The launch coincidentally comes nearly 50 years after they were discovered by British astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell.

A second objective of NICER involves the first space test attempting to use pulsars as navigation beacons through technology called Station Explorer for X-Ray Timing and Navigation (SEXTANT).

Roll Out Solar Array (ROSA) is among the science investigations launching on the next SpaceX commercial resupply flight to the International Space Station, targeted for June 1, 2017.
Credits: Deployable Space Systems, Inc.

If all goes well, Dragon will arrive at the ISS 2 days after launch and be grappled by Expedition 52 astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer using the 57.7 foot long (17.6 meter long) Canadian-built robotic arm.

They will berth Dragon at the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module.

NASA TV will begin covering the Dragon rendezvous and grappling activities starting at 8:30 a.m. Monday.

Dragon CRS-11 is SpaceX’s second contracted resupply mission to launch this year for NASA.

The prior SpaceX cargo ship launched on Feb 19, 2017 on the CRS-10 mission to the space station. CRS-10 is further noteworthy as being the first SpaceX launch of a Falcon 9 from NASA’s historic pad 39A.

Overall CRS-11 marks the 100th launch from pad 39A and the sixth SpaceX launch from this pad.

SpaceX leased pad 39A from NASA in 2014 and after refurbishments placed the pad back in service this year for the first time since the retirement of the space shuttles in 2011. To date this is the sixth SpaceX launch from this pad.

Previous launches include 11 Apollo flights, the launch of the unmanned Skylab in 1973, 82 shuttle flights and five SpaceX launches.

June 3, 2017 liftoff of SpaceX Falcon 9 with reused Dragon CRS-11 cargo craft from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:07 p.m. on June 3, 2017. Credit: Jeff Seibert

Cargo Manifest for CRS-11:

TOTAL CARGO: 5970.1 lbs. / 2708 kg

TOTAL PRESSURIZED CARGO WITH PACKAGING: 3761.1 lbs. / 1665 kg
• Science Investigations 2356.7 lbs. / 1069 kg
• Crew Supplies 533.5 lbs. / 242 kg
• Vehicle Hardware 438.7 lbs. / 199 kg
• Spacewalk Equipment 123.4 lbs. / 56 kg
• Computer Resources 59.4 lbs. / 27 kg

UNPRESSURIZED 2209.0 lbs. / 1002 kg
• Roll-Out Solar Array (ROSA) 716.5 lbs. / 325 kg
• Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) 820.1 lbs. / 372 kg
• Multiple User System for Earth Sensing (MUSES) 672.4 lbs. / 305 kg

Watch for Ken’s onsite CRS-11 mission reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

Stay tuned here for Ken’s continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news.

Ken Kremer

Launch of SpaceX Falcon 9 with reused Dragon CRS-11 cargo craft from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:07 p.m. on June 3, 2017 as seen from the Countdown clock at the KSC Press Site. Credit: Jean Wright

Up close view of SpaceX Dragon CRS-11 resupply vessel atop Falcon 9 rocket and delivering 3 tons of science and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. Liftoff occurred 3 June 2017. Credit: Ken Kremer/Kenkremer.com

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket goes erect to launch position atop Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on 1 Jun 2017 as seen the morning before later afternoon launch from inside from the pad perimeter. Liftoff of the CRS-11 resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) occurred 3 June 2017. Credit: Ken Kremer/Kenkremer.com

June 1, 2017June 1, 2017 by Evan Gough

What Exactly Should We See When a Star Splashes into a Black Hole Event Horizon?

This artist's impression shows a star crossing the event horizon of a supermassive black hole located in the center of a galaxy. The black hole is so large and massive that tidal effects on the star are negligible, and the star is swallowed whole. Image: Mark A. Garlick/CfA

At the center of our Milky Way galaxy dwells a behemoth. An object so massive that nothing can escape its gravitational pull, not even light. In fact, we think most galaxies have one of them. They are, of course, supermassive black holes.

Supermassive black holes are stars that have collapsed into a singularity. Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity predicted their existence. And these black holes are surrounded by what’s known as an event horizon, which is kind of like the point of no return for anything getting too close to the black hole. But nobody has actually proven the existence of the event horizon yet.

Some theorists think that something else might lie at the center of galaxies, a supermassive object event stranger than a supermassive black hole. Theorists think these objects have somehow avoided a black hole’s fate, and have not collapsed into a singularity. They would have no event horizon, and would have a solid surface instead.

“Our whole point here is to turn this idea of an event horizon into an experimental science, and find out if event horizons really do exist or not,” – Pawan Kumar Professor of Astrophysics, University of Texas at Austin.

A team of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Harvard University have tackled the problem. Wenbin Lu, Pawan Kumar, and Ramesh Narayan wanted to shed some light onto the event horizon problem. They wondered about the solid surface object, and what would happen when an object like a star collided with it. They published their results in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Artist's conception of the event horizon of a black hole. Credit: Victor de Schwanberg/Science Photo Library — Artist’s conception of the event horizon of a black hole. Credit: Victor de Schwanberg/Science Photo Library

“Our whole point here is to turn this idea of an event horizon into an experimental science, and find out if event horizons really do exist or not,” said Pawan Kumar, Professor of Astrophysics at The University of Texas at Austin, in a press release.

Since a black hole is a star collapsed into a singularity, it has no surface area, and instead has an event horizon. But if the other theory turns out to be true, and the object has a solid surface instead of an event horizon, then any object colliding with it would be destroyed. If a star was to collide with this hard surface and be destroyed, the team surmised, then the gas from the star would enshroud the object and shine brightly for months, or even years.

This is the first in a sequence of two artist's impressions that shows a huge, massive sphere in the center of a galaxy, rather than a supermassive black hole. Here a star moves towards and then smashes into the hard surface of the sphere, flinging out debris. The impact heats up the site of the collision. Image: Mark A. Garlick/CfA — This is the first in a sequence of two artist’s impressions that shows a huge, massive sphere in the center of a galaxy, rather than a supermassive black hole. Here a star moves towards and then smashes into the hard surface of the sphere, flinging out debris. The impact heats up the site of the collision. Image:
Mark A. Garlick/CfA

In this second artist's impression a huge sphere in the center of a galaxy is shown after a star has collided with it. Enormous amounts of heat and a dramatic increase in the brightness of the sphere are generated by this event. The lack of observation of such flares from the center of galaxies means that this hypothetical scenario is almost completely ruled out. Image: Mark A. Garlick/CfA — In this second artist’s impression a huge sphere in the center of a galaxy is shown after a star has collided with it. Enormous amounts of heat and a dramatic increase in the brightness of the sphere are generated by this event. The lack of observation of such flares from the center of galaxies means that this hypothetical scenario is almost completely ruled out. Image: Mark A. Garlick/CfA

If that were the case, then the team knew what to look for. They also worked out how often this would happen.

“We estimated the rate of stars falling onto supermassive black holes,” Lu said in the same press release. “Nearly every galaxy has one. We only considered the most massive ones, which weigh about 100 million solar masses or more. There are about a million of them within a few billion light-years of Earth.”

Now they needed a way to search the sky for these objects, and they found it in the archives of the Pan-STARRS telescope. Pan-STARRS is a 1.8 meter telescope in Hawaii. That telescope recently completed a survey of half of the northern hemisphere of the sky. In that survey, Pan-STAARS spent 3.5 years looking for transient objects in the sky, objects that brighten and then fade. They searched the Pan-STARR archives for transient objects that had the signature they predicted from stars colliding with these supermassive, hard-surfaced objects.

The trio predicted that in the 3.5 year time-frame captured by the Pan-STAARS survey, 10 of these collisions would occur and should be represented in the data.

“It turns out it should have detected more than 10 of them, if the hard-surface theory is true.” – Wenbin Lu, Dept. of Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin.

“Given the rate of stars falling onto black holes and the number density of black holes in the nearby universe, we calculated how many such transients Pan-STARRS should have detected over a period of operation of 3.5 years. It turns out it should have detected more than 10 of them, if the hard-surface theory is true,” Lu said.

The team found none of the flare-ups they expected to see if the hard-surface theory is true.

“Our work implies that some, and perhaps all, black holes have event horizons…” – Ramesh Narayan, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

What might seem like a failure, isn’t one of course. Not for Einstein, anyway. This represents yet another successful test of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, showing that the event horizon predicted in his theory does seem to exist.

As for the team, they haven’t abandoned the idea yet. In fact, according to Pawan Kumar, Professor of Astrophysics, University of Texas at Austin, “Our motive is not so much to establish that there is a hard surface, but to push the boundary of knowledge and find concrete evidence that really, there is an event horizon around black holes.”

“General Relativity has passed another critical test.” – Ramesh Narayan, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

“Our work implies that some, and perhaps all, black holes have event horizons and that material really does disappear from the observable universe when pulled into these exotic objects, as we’ve expected for decades,” Narayan said. “General Relativity has passed another critical test.”

The team plans to continue to look for the flare-ups associated with the hard-surface theory. Their look into the Pan-STARRS data was just their first crack at it.

An artist's illustration of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope with a simulated night sky. The team hopes to use the LSST to further refine their search for hard-surface supermassive objects. Image: Todd Mason, Mason Productions Inc. / LSST Corporation — An artist’s illustration of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope with a simulated night sky. The team hopes to use the LSST to further refine their search for hard-surface supermassive objects. Image: Todd Mason, Mason Productions Inc. / LSST Corporation

They’re hoping to improve their test with the upcoming Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) being built in Chile. The LSST is a wide field telescope that will capture images of the night sky every 20 seconds over a ten-year span. Every few nights, the LSST will give us an image of the entire available night sky. This will make the study of transient objects much easier and effective.

More reading: Rise of the Super Telescopes: The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

Sources:

May 12, 2017July 16, 2019 by Evan Gough

Early Earth Was Almost Entirely Underwater, With Just A Few Islands

Earth's Hadean Eon is a bit of a mystery to us, because geologic evidence from that time is scarce. Researchers at the Australian National University have used tiny zircon grains to get a better picture of early Earth. Credit: NASA

It might seem unlikely, but tiny grains of minerals can help tell the story of early Earth. And researchers studying those grains say that 4.4 billion years ago, Earth was a barren, mountainless place, and almost everything was under water. Only a handful of islands poked above the surface.

Continue reading “Early Earth Was Almost Entirely Underwater, With Just A Few Islands”

May 11, 2017May 11, 2017 by David Dickinson

Movie Review – Alien: Covenant

Promotional poster for Alien: Covenant. Credit: 20th Century Fox

Warning: mild plot spoilers ahead for the upcoming summer film Alien: Covenant, though we plan to focus more on the overall Alien sci-fi franchise and some of the science depicted in the movie.

So, are you excited for the 2017 movie season? U.S. Memorial Day weekend is almost upon us, and that means big ticket, explosion-laden sci-fi flicks and reboots/sequels. Lots of sequels. We recently got a chance to check out Alien: Covenant opening Thursday, May 18^th as the second prequel and the seventh film (if you count 2004’s Alien vs. Predator offshoot) in the Alien franchise.

We’ll say right up front that we were both excited and skeptical to see the film… excited, because the early Alien films still stand as some of the best horror sci-fi ever made. But we were skeptical, as 2012’s Prometheus was lackluster at best. Plus, Prometheus hits you with an astronomical doozy in the form of the “alien star chart” right off the bat, not a great first step. Probably the best scene is Noomi Rapace’s terrifying self-surgery to remove the alien parasite. Mark Watney had to do something similar to remove the antenna impaled in his side in The Martian. Apparently, Ridley Scott likes to use this sort of scene to really gross audiences out. The second Aliens film probably stands as the benchmark for the series, and the third film lost fans almost immediately with the death of Newt at the very beginning, the girl Sigourney Weaver and crew fought so hard to save in Aliens.

How well does Alien: Covenant hold up? Well, while it was a better attempt at a prequel than Prometheus, it approaches though doesn’t surpass the iconic first two. Alien: Covenant is very similar to Aliens, right down to the same action beats.

The story opens as the crew of the first Earth interstellar colony ship Covenant heads towards a promised paradise planet Origae-6. En route, the crew receives a distress signal from the world where the ill-fated Prometheus disappeared, and detours to investigate. If you’ve never seen an Alien film before, we can tell you that investigating a mysterious transmission is always a very bad idea, as blood and gore via face-hugging parasites is bound to ensue. As with every Alien film, the crew of the Covenant is an entirely new cast, with Katherine Waterston as the new chief protagonist similar to Sigourney Weaver in the original films. And like any sci-fi horror film, expect few survivors.

Alien: Covenant is a worthy addition to the Alien franchise for fans who know what to expect, hearkening back to the original films. As a summer blockbuster, it has a bit of an uphill battle, with a slower opening before the real drama begins.

So how does the science of Alien: Covenant hold up?

The Good: Well, as with the earlier films, we always liked how the aliens in the franchise were truly, well, alien, not just human actors with cosmetic flourishes such as antennae or pointed ears. Humans are the result of evolutionary fortuity, assuring that an alien life form will trend more towards the heptapods in Arrival than Star Trek’s Mr. Spock. Still more is revealed about the parasitic aliens in Alien: Covenant, though the whole idea of a inter-genetic human alien hybrid advanced in the later films seems like a tall order… what if their DNA helix curled the wrong way? Or was triple or single, instead of double stranded?

Spaceships spin for gravity in the Alien universe, and I always liked Scott’s industrial-looking, gray steel and rough edges world in the Alien films, very 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Now, for a very few pedantic nit picks. You knew they were coming, right? In the opening scenes, the Covenant gets hit with a “neutrino burst” dramatically disabling the deployed solar array and killing a portion of the hibernating crew. Through neutrinos are real, they, for the most part, pass right through solid matter, with nary a hit. Millions are passing through you and me, right now. The burst is later described as due to a “stellar ignition event” (a flare? Maybe a nova?) Though the crew states there’s no way to predict these beforehand… but even today there is, as missions such as the Solar Dynamics Observatory and SOHO monitor Sol around the clock. And we do know which nearby stars such as Betelgeuse and Spica are likely to go supernova, and that red dwarfs are tempestuous flare stars. An interstellar colonization mission would (or at least should) know to monitor nearby stars (if any) for activity. True, a similar sort of maguffin in the form of the overblown Mars sandstorm was used in The Martian to get things rolling plot-wise, but we think maybe something like equally unpredictable bursts high-energy cosmic rays would be a bigger threat to an interstellar mission.

The crew also decides to detour while moving at presumably relativistic speeds to investigate the strange signal. This actually happens lots in sci-fi, as it seems as easy as running errands around town to simply hop from one world to the next. In reality, mass and change of momentum are costly affairs in terms of energy. In space, you want to get there quickly, but any interstellar mission would involve long stretches of slow acceleration followed by deceleration to enter orbit at your destination… changing this flight plan would be out of the question, even for the futuristic crew of the Covenant.

Expect a high body count: the crew of the Covenant. Credit: 20th Century Fox

Another tiny quibble: the Covenant’s computer pinpoints the source of the mysterious signal, and gives its coordinates in right ascension and declination. OK, this is good: RA and declination are part of a real coordinate system astronomers use to find things in the sky… here on Earth. It’s an equatorial system, though, hardly handy when you get out into space. Maybe a reference system using the plane of the Milky Way galaxy would be more useful.

But of course, had the crew of the Covenant uneventfully made it to Origae-6 and lived happily ever after stomach-exploding parasite free, there would be no film. Alien: Covenant is a worthy addition to the franchise and a better prequel attempt than Prometheus… though it doesn’t quite live up to the thrill ride of the first two, a tough act to follow in the realm of horror sci-fi.

April 20, 2017April 28, 2017 by Evan Gough

Opportunity Leaving ‘Tribulation’ Behind

Opportunity took this panorama shot of "Rocheport Ridge" as it left Cape Tribulation. Rocheport is on the southern end of Cape Tribulation. Image:NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ.

You’d have to be an intrepid explorer to investigate something named ‘Cape Tribulation’. Opportunity, NASA’s long-lived rover on Mars’ surface, has been just that. But Opportunity is now leaving Cape Tribulation behind, after being in that area since late 2014, or for about 30 months.

Cape Tribulation is the name given to a segment of crater rim at Endeavour Crater, where Opportunity has been for over 5 1/2 years. During that time, Opportunity reached some important milestones. While there, it surpassed 26 miles in distance travelled, the length of a marathon race. It also reached its highest elevation yet, and in ‘Marathon Valley’, it investigated clay outcrops seen from orbit. Opportunity also had some struggles there, when its flash memory stopped working, meaning all data had to be transmitted every day, or lost.

Sol 3906, January 19, 2015. Summit panorama from Cape Tribulation from the Opportunity Mars Rover. Credit: NASA/Arizona State University.

Before reaching Cape Tribulation 30 months ago, Opportunity investigated other parts of Endeavour Crater called “Cape York,” “Solander Point” and “Murray Ridge.”

Some of the named features at Endeavour Crater. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The rover’s next destination is Perseverance Valley, where it will investigate how it was carved out billions of years ago: by water, by wind, or perhaps flowing material lubricated by water. Before leaving Cape Tribulation, Opportunity captured the panoramic image of Rochefort Ridge, a section of the Endeavour Crater rim marked by grooves on its side.”The degree of erosion at Rocheport is fascinating,” said Opportunity Deputy Principal Investigator Ray Arvidson, of Washington University in St. Louis. “Grooves run perpendicular to the crest line. They may have been carved by water or ice or wind. We want to see as many features like this on the way to Perseverance Valley as we can, for comparison with what we find there.”

Endeavour crater is about 22km in diameter, and Perseverance Valley is about 2 football fields long. The goal at Endeavour is to investigate its segmented rim, where the oldest rocks ever investigated on Mars are exposed. Since the beginning of April, Opportunity has travelled about 98 meters, to a point where Cape Tribulation meets the plain around the crater.

“From the Cape Tribulation departure point, we’ll make a beeline to the head of Perseverance Valley…” – Opportunity Deputy Principal Investigator Ray Arvidson

“From the Cape Tribulation departure point, we’ll make a beeline to the head of Perseverance Valley, then turn left and drive down the full length of the valley, if we can,” Arvidson said. “It’s what you would do if you were an astronaut arriving at a feature like this: Start at the top, looking at the source material, then proceed down the valley, looking at deposits along the way and at the bottom.”

It’s the nature of those deposits that can give vital clues to how Perseverance Valley was formed. Arvidson said, “If it was a debris flow, initiated by a little water, with lots of rocks moving downhill, it should be a jumbled mess. If it was a river cutting a channel, we may see gravel bars, crossbedding, and what’s called a ‘fining upward’ pattern of sediments, with coarsest rocks at the bottom.”

Opportunity, and its sister rover Spirit, arrived at Mars in 2004, with a planned mission length of 90 days. Opportunity has surpassed that by over 12 years, and continues to perform extremely well in the Martian environment.

April 19, 2017April 28, 2017 by Evan Gough

Art History NASA Style

This illustration of a double-cylinder space colony is from the 1970's, by artist Rick Guidice. Image: NASA Ames Research Center

To some, art and science are opposed to one another. Art is aesthetics, expression, and intuition, while science is all cold, hard, rational thought. But that’s a simplistic understanding. They’re both quintessential human endeavours, and they’re both part of the human spirit.

Some at NASA have always understood this, and there’s actually an interesting, collaborative history between NASA and the art world, that reaches back several decades. Not the kind of art that you see hanging in elite galleries in the world’s large cities, but the kind of art that documents achievements in space exploration, and that helps us envision what our future could be.

Mitchell Jamieson produced this painting of astronaut Gordon Cooper. Titled "First Steps", it documents Cooper's first steps after exiting his Mercury spacecraft in 1963, after Cooper had completed 22 orbits of Earth. Image Credit: Mitchell Jamieson/Courtesy of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum — Mitchell Jamieson produced this painting of astronaut Gordon Cooper. Titled “First Steps”, it documents Cooper’s first steps after exiting his Mercury spacecraft in 1963, after Cooper had completed 22 orbits of Earth. Image Credit: Mitchell Jamieson/Courtesy of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Back in 1962, when NASA was 4 years old, NASA administrator James Webb put the wheels in motion for a collaboration between NASA and American artists. Artist Bruce Stevenson had been commissioned to produce a portrait of Alan Shepard. Shepard, of course, was the first American in space. He piloted the first Project Mercury flight, MR-3, in 1961. When Webb saw it, he got a bright idea.

When Stevenson brought is portrait of Shepard to NASA headquarters, James Webb thought that Stevenson wanted to paint portraits of all seven Mercury astronauts. But Webb thought a group portrait would be even better. The group portrait was never produced, but it got Webb thinking. In a memo, he said “…we should consider in a deliberate way just what NASA should do in the field of fine arts to commemorate the …historic events” of the American space program.

That set in motion a framework that exists to this day. Beyond just portraits, Webb wanted artists to produce paintings that would convey the excitement around the entire endeavour of space flight, and what the deeper meaning behind it might be. He wanted artists to capture all of the excitement around the preparation and countdown for launches, and activities in space.

This 1963 painting by artist Paul Calle captures the lift-off of the Saturn V Moon rocket. Image: Paul Calle, NASA

That’s when the NASA collaboration with artists began. A young artist named James Dean was assigned to the program, and he took a page out of the Air Force’s book, which established its own art program in 1954.

There’s a whole cast of characters involved, each one contributing to the success of the program. One such person was John Walker, Director of the National Gallery. He was enthusiastic, saying in a talk in 1965 that “the present space exploration effort by the United States will probably rank among the more important events in the history of mankind.” History has certainly proven those words to be true.

This Norman Rockwell painting is from 1965, and shows astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young suiting up for the first Gemini flight in March, 1965. NASA loaned Rockwell a spacesuit for the painting. Image: Norman Rockwell, NASA Art Program

Walker went on to say that it was the artists’ job “…not only to record the physical appearance of the strange new world which space technology is creating, but to edit, select and probe for the inner meaning and emotional impact of events which may change the destiny of our race.”

And that’s what they did. Artists like Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol, Peter Hurd, Annie Liebowitz, Robert Rauschenberg, and others, all took part in the program.

Artist Peter Hurd painted the launch of Skylab in 1973. Image Credit: Peter Hurd, Courtesy of National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution

In the 1970’s, thinkers like Gerard K. O’Neill began to formulate ideas of what human colonies in space might look like. NASA held a series of conferences where these ideas were shared and explored. Artists Rick Guidice and Don Davis created many paintings and illustrations of what colony designs like Bernal Spheres, Double Cylinders, and Toroidal Colonies might look like.

This piece by artist Don Davis depicts the end-cap of a cylindrical colony. Notice the suspension bridge, and people enjoying themselves by a river. Image: Don Davis, NASA Ames Research Center

This cut-away image of a Bernal Sphere colony was created by artist Rick Guidice. Image: Rick Guidice, NASA Ames Research Center

NASA continues to work with artists, though the nature of the relationship has changed over the decades. Artists are often used to flesh out new discoveries when images are not available. Cassini’s so-called Grand Finale, when it will orbit between Saturn and its rings 22 times before crashing into the planet, was conceptualized by an unnamed artist.

An artist's illustration of the Cassini probe's Grand Finale. Image: NASA/JPL/CalTech — An artist’s illustration of the Cassini probe’s Grand Finale. Image: NASA/JPL/CalTech

The recent discovery of the exoplanets in the TRAPPIST-1 system was huge news. It still is. But TRAPPIST-1 is over 40 light years away, and NASA relied on artists to bring the discovery to life. This illustration was widely used to help us understand what planets orbiting the TRAPPIST-1 Red Dwarf might look like.

Illustration showing the possible surface of TRAPPIST-1f, one of the newly discovered planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA now has quite a history of relying on art to convey what words can’t do. Space colonies, distant solar systems, and spacecraft ending their missions on other worlds, have all relied on the work of artists. But if I had to choose a favorite, it would probably be the 1981 water color by artist Henry Casselli. It makes you wonder what it’s like for an individual to take part in these species-defining endeavours. Just one person, sitting, contemplating, and preparing.

This Henry Casselli watercolor shows astronaut John Young preparing for a launch on April 12, 1981. What must he have been thinking as he prepared for the first flight of the Space Shuttle Program? Image: Henry Casselli, Courtesy NASA Art Program

April 18, 2017April 19, 2017 by Ken Kremer

Cygnus Soars to Space on Atlas Carrying SS John Glenn on Course to Space Station

Orbital ATK’s seventh cargo delivery flight to the International Space Station -in tribute to John Glenn- launched at 11:11 a.m. EDT April 18, 2017, on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – Orbital ATK’s Cygnus supply ship soared to space from the Florida Space Coast at lunchtime today, Tuesday, April 18, drenched in sunshine and carrying the ‘SS John Glenn’ loaded with over three and a half tons of precious cargo – bound for the multinational crew residing aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Just like clockwork, Orbital ATK’s seventh cargo delivery flight to the station launched right on time at 11:11 a.m. EDT Tuesday at the opening of the launch window atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The ‘SS John Glenn’ Cygnus resupply spacecraft was manufactured by NASA commercial cargo provider Orbital ATK. The vehicle is also known alternatively as the Cygnus OA-7 or CRS-7 mission.

“This was a great launch,” said Joel Montalbano, NASA’s deputy manager of the International Space Station program, at the post launch media briefing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

‘We have a vehicle on its way to the ISS.”

Orbital ATK’s 7th cargo delivery flight to the International Space Station launched at 11:11 a.m. EDT April 18, 2017 carrying the SS John Glenn atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, as seen from the VAB roof at KSC. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

Huge crowds gathered at public viewing areas ringing Cape Canaveral and offering spectacular views from Playalinda Beach to the north, the inland waterway and more beautiful space coast beaches to the south.

Near perfect weather conditions and extended views of the rocket roaring to orbit greeted all those lucky enough to be on hand for what amounts to a sentimental third journey to space for American icon John Glenn.

The launch was carried live on NASA TV with extended expert commentary. Indeed this launch coverage was the final one hosted by NASA commentator George Diller- the longtime and familiar ‘Voice of NASA’ – who is retiring from NASA on May 31.

The serene sky blue skies with calm winds and moderate temperatures were punctuated with wispy clouds making for a thrilling spectacle as the rocket accelerated northeast up the US East Coast on a carefully choreographed trajectory to the massive orbiting outpost.

“The status of the spacecraft is great!” said Frank Culbertson, a former shuttle and station astronaut and now Orbital ATK’s Space Systems Group president.

Liftoff of Orbital ATK SS John Glenn OA-7 mission atop ULA Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL on April 18, 2017, as seen from VAB roof at KSC. Credit: Julian Leek

The mission is named the ‘S.S. John Glenn’ in tribute to legendary NASA astronaut John Glenn – the first American to orbit Earth back in February 1962.

Glenn was one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts selected by NASA. At age 77 he later flew a second mission to space aboard Space Shuttle Discovery- further cementing his status as a true American hero.

Glenn passed away in December 2016 at age 95. He also served four terms as a U.S. Senator from Ohio.

A picture of John Glenn in his shuttle flight suit and a few mementos are aboard.

After a four day orbital chase Cygnus will arrive in the vicinity of the station on Saturday, April 22.

“It will be captured at about 6 a.m. EDT Saturday,” Montalbano elaborated.

Expedition 51 astronauts Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) and Peggy Whitson of NASA will use the space station’s Canadian-built robotic arm to grapple Cygnus, about 6:05 a.m. Saturday.

They will use the arm to maneuver and berth the unmanned vehicle to the Node-1 Earth-facing nadir port on the Unity module.

Cygnus will remain at the space station for about 85 days until July before its destructive reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, disposing of several thousand pounds of trash.

The countdown for today’s launch of the 194-foot-tall two stage United Launch Alliance (ULA) rocket began when the rocket was activated around 3 a.m. The rocket was tested during a seven-hour long countdown.

This is the third Cygnus to launch on an Atlas V rocket from the Cape. The last one launched a year ago on March 24, 2016 during the OA-6 mission. The first one launched in December 2015 during the OA-4 mission. Each Cygnus is named after a deceased NASA astronaut.

“We’re building the bridge to history with these missions,” said Vernon Thorp, ULA’s program manager for Commercial Missions. “Every mission is fantastic and every mission is unique. At the end of the day every one of these missions is critical.”

“The Atlas V performed beautifully,” said Thorpe at the post launch briefing.

The other Cygnus spacecraft have launched on the Orbital ATK commercial Antares rocket from NASA Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s eastern shore.

Cygnus OA-7 is loaded with 3459 kg (7626 pounds) of science experiments and hardware, crew supplies, spare parts, gear and station hardware to the orbital laboratory in support over 250 research experiments being conducted on board by the Expedition 51 and 52 crews. The total volumetric capacity of Cygnus exceeds 27 cubic meters.

The official OA-7 payload manifest includes the following:

TOTAL PRESSURIZED CARGO WITH PACKAGING: 7,442.8 lbs. / 3,376 kg

• Science Investigations 2,072.3 lbs. / 940 kg
• Crew Supplies 2,103.2 lbs. / 954 kg
• Vehicle Hardware 2,678.6 lbs. / 1,215 kg
• Spacewalk Equipment 160.9 lbs. / 73 kg
• Computer Resources 4.4 lbs. / 2 kg
• Russian Hardware 39.7 lbs. / 18 kg

UNPRESSURIZED CARGO (CubeSats) 183 lbs. / 83 kg

The Orbital ATK Cygnus CRS-7 (OA-7) mission launched aboard an Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) in the 401 configuration vehicle. This includes a 4-meter-diameter payload fairing in its longest, extra extended configuration (XEPF) to accommodate the enhanced, longer Cygnus variant being used.

“ULA is excited to be a part of the team that delivered such an important payload to astronauts aboard the ISS,” said Gary Wentz, ULA vice president of Human and Commercial Systems, in a statement.

“Not only are we delivering needed supplies as the first launch under our new RapidLaunch™ offering, but we are truly honored to launch a payload dedicated to John Glenn on an Atlas V, helping to signify the gap we plan to fill as we start launching astronauts from American soil again in 2018.”

The first stage of the Atlas V booster is powered by the RD AMROSS RD-180 engine. There are no side mounted solids on the first stage. The Centaur upper stage is powered by the Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10C-1 engine.

Overall this is the 71st launch of an Atlas V and the 36th utilizing the 401 configuration.

The 401 is thus the workhorse version of the Atlas V and accounts for half of all launches.

The Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft named for Sen. John Glenn, one of NASA’s original seven astronauts, stands inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida behind a sign commemorating Glenn on March 9, 2017. Launch slated for April 18 on a ULA Atlas V. Credit: Ken Kremer/Kenkremer.com

Watch for Ken’s onsite launch reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Stay tuned here for Ken’s continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news.

Ken Kremer

Orbital ATK SS John Glenn CRS-7 launch vehicle with the Cygnus cargo spacecraft bolted to the top of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is poised for launch at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on April 18, 2017. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

April 17, 2017April 18, 2017 by Ken Kremer

SS John Glenn Launching Science Stash to Space Station atop Atlas V April 18 – Watch Live and 360 Degree Video

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – The ‘SS John Glenn’ cargo freighter stands proudly poised for launch at pad 41 from the Florida Space Coast on Tuesday April 18, loaded with a stash of nearly 4 tons of science investigations and essential supplies atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket destined for the multinational crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The lunchtime liftoff of the ‘SS John Glenn’ Cygnus resupply spacecraft manufactured by NASA commercial cargo provider Orbital ATK is slated for 11:11 a.m. EDT Tuesday, April 18 from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL.

The US cargo ships provided by NASA suppliers Orbital ATK and SpaceX every few months act as NASA’s essential railroad to space. And they are vital to operating the station with a steady stream of new research experiments as well as essential hardware, spare parts, crew supplies, computer, maintenance and spacewalking equipment as well food, water, clothing, provisions and much more.

The launch window lasts 30 minutes and runs from 11:11-11:41 a.m. EDT April 18.

Excited spectators are gathering from near and far and Tuesday’s weather outlook is spectacular so far.

Orbital ATK OA-7/CRS-7 vehicle rolls out to pad 41 atop ULA Atlas V rocket for launch from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on April 18, 2017. Credit: Julian Leek

Blastoff of the S.S. John Glenn on the OA-7 or CRS-7 flight counts as Orbital ATK’s seventh contracted commercial resupply services mission to the ISS for NASA.

The ‘S.S. John Glenn’ is named in honor of legendary NASA astronaut John Glenn – the first American to orbit Earth back in February 1962.

If you can’t attend in person, there are a few options to watch online.

NASA’s Atlas V/Cygnus CRS-7 launch coverage will be broadcast on NASA TV and the NASA launch blog beginning at 10 AM, Tuesday morning.

You can watch the launch live NASA TV at: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

A ULA webcast will be available starting at 10 a.m. at: www.ulalaunch.com

And for the first time ever you can also watch the launch live via a live 360 stream on the NASA Television YouTube channel. The 360 degree broadcast starts about 10 minutes prior to lift off at:

http://youtube.com/nasatelevision

The late morning daytime launch offers the perfect opportunity to debut this technology with the rocket magnificently visible atop a climbing plume of smoke and ash – and with a “pads-eye” view!

NASA/ULA Atlas V launch of Orbital ATK SS John Glenn Cygnus spacecraft on OA-7 resupply ship on April 18, 2017. Credit: ULA/Orbital ATK/NASA

Science plays a big role in this mission in tribute named in tribute to John Glenn. Over one third of the payload loaded aboard Cygnus involves science.

“The new experiments will include an antibody investigation that could increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs for cancer treatment and an advanced plant habitat for studying plant physiology and growth of fresh food in space,” according to NASA.

The astronauts will grow food in space, including Arabidopsis and dwarf wheat, in an experiment that could lead to providing nutrition to astronauts on a deep space journey to Mars.

“Another new investigation bound for the U.S. National Laboratory will look at using magnetized cells and tools to make it easier to handle cells and cultures, and improve the reproducibility of experiments. Cygnus also is carrying 38 CubeSats, including many built by university students from around the world as part of the QB50 program. The CubeSats are scheduled to deploy from either the spacecraft or space station in the coming months.”

Also aboard is the ‘Genes in Space-2’ experiment. A high school student experiment from Julian Rubinfien of Stuyvescent High School, New York City, to examine accelerated aging during space travel. This first experiment will test if telomere-like DNA can be amplified in space with a small box sized experiment that will be activated by station astronauts.

The Saffire III payload experiment will follow up on earlier missions to study the development and spread of fire and flames in the microgravity environment of space. The yard long experiment is located in the back of the Cygnus vehicle. It will be activated after Cygnus departs the station roughly 80 days after berthing. It will take a few hours to collect the data for transmission to Earth.

Furthermore you can learn more about the Orbital ATK CRS-7 mission by going to the mission home page at: http://www.nasa.gov/orbitalatk

Up close view of umbilical’s connecting to Atlas V rocket carrying Orbital ATK CRS-7 launch vehicle to the ISS at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on April 17, 2017 prior to planned launch on April 18. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

From a weather standpoint, Tuesday’s launch outlook is outstanding at this time.

According to meteorologists with the U.S. Air Force 45th Weather Squadron we are forecasting a 90 percent chance of “go” conditions at the 11:11 a.m. EDT launch time. The primary concern is for the possibility of cumulus clouds.

The forecast calls for temperatures of 75-76° F with on-shore winds peaking below 10 knots during the countdown.

In the event of a delay for any reason related to weather or technical issues a backup launch opportunity exists for Wednesday, April 19, and also looks promising.

The AF is also predicting the same 90 percent chance of “go” conditions at launch time. With the primary concern again being for the possibility of cumulus clouds.

Orbital ATK SS John Glenn OA-7 vehicle atop ULA Atlas V rocket slated for launch from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL on April 18, 2017. Credit: Julian Leek

The rocket was rolled out to pad 41 at about 9 a.m. EDT this morning Monday April 17, in a process that takes about 25 minutes

The rocket and spacecraft passed the Launch Readiness Review held by United Launch Alliance and Orbital ATK on April 15. Launch managers from ULA, Orbital ATK and NASA determined all is ready for Tuesday’s targeted launch to the ISS.

OA-7 is loaded with 3500 kg (7700 pounds) of science experiments and hardware, crew supplies, spare parts, gear and station hardware to the orbital laboratory in support over 250 research experiments being conducted on board by the Expedition 51 and 52 crews. The total volumetric capacity of Cygnus exceeds 27 cubic meters.

The Orbital ATK Cygnus CRS-7 (OA-7) mission will launch aboard an Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) in the 401 configuration vehicle. This includes a 4-meter-diameter payload fairing in its longest, extra extended configuration (XEPF) to accommodate the enhanced, longer Cygnus variant being used.

Orbital ATK SS John Glenn Cygnus CRS-7 cargo ship bolted on top of United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is poised for launch to the ISS at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on April 18, 2017. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

Overall this is the 71st launch of an Atlas V and the 36th utilizing the 401 configuration.

The 401 is thus the workhorse version of the Atlas V and accounts for half of all launches.

Orbital ATK Cygnus OA-7 spacecraft named the SS John Glenn for Original 7 Mercury astronaut and Sen. John Glenn, undergoes processing inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 9, 2017 for launch slated for March 21 on a ULA Atlas V. Credit: Ken Kremer/Kenkremer.com

Watch for Ken’s onsite launch reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Stay tuned here for Ken’s continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news.

Ken Kremer

………….

Learn more about the SS John Glenn/ULA Atlas V launch to ISS, NASA missions and more at Ken’s upcoming outreach events at Kennedy Space Center Quality Inn, Titusville, FL:

Apr 18-19: “SS John Glenn/ULA Atlas V launch to ISS, SpaceX SES-10, EchoStar 23, CRS-10 launch to ISS, ULA Atlas SBIRS GEO 3 launch, GOES-R weather satellite launch, OSIRIS-Rex, SpaceX and Orbital ATK missions to the ISS, Juno at Jupiter, ULA Delta 4 Heavy spy satellite, SLS, Orion, Commercial crew, Curiosity explores Mars, Pluto and more,” Kennedy Space Center Quality Inn, Titusville, FL, evenings

March 30, 2017April 4, 2017 by Evan Gough

The Ever-Working Mars Orbiter Passes 50,000 Orbits

This image is a mosaic of all the images captured by the Context Camera (CTX) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The CTX has imaged over 99% of the Martian surface. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Most of us never do one thing 50,000 times in our life. So for NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), completing 50,000 orbits around the red planet is a big deal. And, it only took 10 years to do so.

The MRO could be called one of NASA’s flagship missions. It’s presence in orbit around Mars has helped open up our understanding of that planet immensely. And it’s done so while providing us a steady stream of eye candy.

This recent image from MRO’s HiRise camera shows dune structure inside an impact crater. Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

MRO was launched in 2005 and reached Mars orbit in March, 2006. After 10 years at work, it has accomplished a lot. In a recent press release, NASA calls the MRO “the most data-productive spacecraft yet.” Though most of us might know the orbiter because of it’s camera, the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRise), the MRO actually has a handful of other instruments that help the orbiter achieve its objectives. In broad terms, those objectives are:

to study the history of water on Mars
to look at small scale features on the surface, and identify landing sites for future Mars missions
to act as a communications relay between Mars and Earth

MRO investigating Martian water cycle – This artist’s concept represents the “Follow the Water” theme of NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission. The orbiter’s science instruments monitor the present water cycle in the Mars atmosphere and the associated deposition and sublimation of water ice on the surface, while probing the subsurface to see how deep the water-ice reservoir extends. Image: By NASA/JPL/Corby Waste – http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07241 (image link), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=374810 (Larger image here.

MRO’s HiRise camera gets all the glory, but it’s another onboard camera, the Context Camera (CTX), that is the real workhorse. The CTX is a much lower resolution than the HiRise, but its file sizes are much more manageable, an important consideration when every file has to travel from Mars to Earth—an average distance of about 225 million km.

CTX has captured 90,000 images so far in MRO’s mission, and each one captures details smaller than a tennis court. In the course of the mission so far, CTX has images that cover 99.1% of the Martian surface. Over 60% of the planet has been covered twice.

“Reaching 99.1-percent coverage has been tricky…” – Context Camera Team Leader Michael Malin

“Reaching 99.1-percent coverage has been tricky because a number of factors, including weather conditions, coordination with other instruments, downlink limitations, and orbital constraints, tend to limit where we can image and when,” said Context Camera Team Leader Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego.

Malin said, “Single coverage provides a baseline we can use for comparison with future observations, as we look for changes. Re-imaging areas serves two functions: looking for changes and acquiring stereoscopic views from which we can make topographic maps.”

Because the CTX captures image of the same surface areas twice, it documents changes on the surface. There have been over 200 instances of impact craters appearing in a second image of the same area. Scientists have used this to calculate the rate that meteorites impact Mars.

The instruments on board the MRO work as a team. The CTX can capture images of areas of interest, and the HiRise can be used for higher-resolution images of the same area. By locating fresh impact craters, then studying them more closely, the MRO has helped discover the presence of what looked like sub-surface ice on Mars. A third instrument, the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), confirmed the presence of ice.

The CTX is the workhorse camera, and the HiRise is the diva, but MRO actually has a third camera: the Mars Color Imager (MARCI). MARCI is a very low resolution camera compared to the others. It’s also a wide-angle camera with really only one purpose: characterizing Martian weather. Every day, MARCI takes about 84 images which together create a daily global map of Mars. You can see a weekly Martian weather report from MARCI here.

The MRO recently manoeuvered itself into position for its next task—helping the InSight Lander. The MRO must receive critical radio transmissions from NASA’s InSight Lander as it descends to Mars. Insight will use its instruments to examine the interior of Mars for clues to how rocky planets form. Not only did MRO help find a landing spot for Insight, but it will hold the lander’s hand as it descends, and it will act as a data relay.

“After 11 and a half years in flight, the spacecraft is healthy and remains fully functional.” – MRO Project Manager Dan Johnston.

There’s no end in sight for the MRO. It just keeps going and going, and fulfilling its mission objectives on a continuing basis. “After 11 and a half years in flight, the spacecraft is healthy and remains fully functional,” said MRO Project Manager Dan Johnston at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. “It’s a marvelous vehicle that we expect will serve the Mars Exploration Program and Mars science for many more years to come.”

March 24, 2017April 4, 2017 by Bob King

Watch Stars Orbit The Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole

Stars circle 'round the Milky Way central supermassive black hole. Credit: ESO

The Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, called Sagittarius A* (or Sgr A*), is arrowed in the image made of the innermost galactic center in X-ray light by NASA’s **Chandra Observatory**. To the left or east of Sgr A* is Sgr A East, a large cloud that may be the remnant of a supernova. Centered on Sgr A* is a spiral shaped group of gas streamers that might be falling onto the hole. Credit: NASA/CXC/MIT/Frederick K. Baganoff et al.

When your ordinary citizen learns there’s a supermassive black hole with a mass of 4 million suns sucking on its teeth in the center of the Milky Way galaxy, they might kindly ask exactly how astronomers know this. A perfectly legitimate question. You can tell them that the laws of physics guarantee their existence or that people have been thinking about black holes since 1783. That year, English clergyman John Michell proposed the idea of “dark stars” so massive and gravitationally powerful they could imprison their own light.

This time-lapse movie in infrared light shows how stars in the central light-year of the Milky Way have moved over a period of 14 years. The yellow mark at the image center represents the location of Sgr A*, site of an unseen supermassive black hole.
Credit: A. Eckart (U. Koeln) & R. Genzel (MPE-Garching), SHARP I, NTT, La Silla Obs., ESO

Michell wasn’t making wild assumptions but taking the idea of gravity to a logical conclusion. Of course, he had no way to prove his assertion. But we do. Astronomers now routinely find bot stellar mass black holes — remnants of the collapse of gas-guzzling supergiant stars — and the supermassive variety in the cores of galaxies that result from multiple black hole mergers over grand intervals of time.

Some of the galactic variety contain hundreds of thousands to billions of solar masses, all of it so to speak “flushed down the toilet” and unavailable to fashion new planets and stars. Famed physicist Stephen Hawking has shown that black holes evaporate over time, returning their energy to the knowable universe from whence they came, though no evidence of the process has yet been found.

On September 14, 2013, astronomers caught the largest X-ray flare ever detected from Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This event was 400 times brighter than the usual X-ray output from the source and was possibly caused when Sgr A*’s strong gravity tore apart an asteroid in its neighborhood, heating the debris to X-ray-emitting temperatures before slurping down the remains.The inset shows the giant flare. Credit: NASA

So how do we really know a massive, dark object broods at the center of our sparkling Milky Way? Astronomers use radio, X-ray and infrared telescopes to peer into its starry heart and see gas clouds and stars whirling about the center at high rates of speed. Based on those speeds they can calculate the mass of what’s doing the pulling.

The Hubble Space Telescope took this photo of the 5000-light-year-long jet of radiation ejected from the active galaxy M87’s supermassive black hole, which is aboutt 1,000 times more massive than the Milky Way’s black hole. Although black holes are dark, matter whirling into their maws at high speed is heated to high temperature, creating a bright disk of material and jets of radiation. Credit: NASA/The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

In the case of the galaxy M87 located 53.5 million light years away in the Virgo Cluster, those speeds tell us that something with a mass of 3.6 billion suns is concentrated in a space smaller than our Solar System. Oh, and it emits no light! Nothing fits the evidence better than a black hole because nothing that massive can exist in so small a space without collapsing in upon itself to form a black hole. It’s just physics, something that Mr. Scott on Star Trek regularly reminded a panicky Captain Kirk.

So it is with the Milky Way, only our black hole amounts to a piddling 4 million-solar-mass light thief confined within a spherical volume of space some 27 million miles in diameter or just shy of Mercury’s perihelion distance from the Sun. This monster hole resides at the location of Sagittarius A* (pronounced A- star), a bright, compact radio source at galactic center about 26,000 light years away.

Video showing a 14-year-long time lapse of stars orbiting Sgr A*

The time-lapse movie, compiled over 14 years, shows the orbits of several dozen stars within the light year of space centered on Sgr A*. We can clearly see the star moving under the influence of a massive unseen body — the putative supermassive black hole. No observations of Sgr A* in visible light are possible because of multiple veils of interstellar dust that lie across our line of sight. They quench its light to the tune of 25 magnitudes.

Merging black holes (the process look oddly biological!). Credit: SXS

How do these things grow so big in the first place? There are a couple of ideas, but astronomers don’t honestly know for sure. Massive gas clouds around early in the galaxy’s history could have collapsed to form multiple supergiants that evolved into black holes which later then coalesced into one big hole. Or collisions among stars in massive, compact star clusters could have built up stellar giants that evolved into black holes. Later, the clusters sank to the center of the galaxy and merged into a single supermassive black hole.

Whichever you chose, merging of smaller holes may explain its origin.

On a clear spring morning before dawn, you can step out to face the constellation Sagittarius low in the southern sky. When you do, you’re also facing in the direction of our galaxy’s supermassive black hole. Although you cannot see it, does it not still exert a certain tug on your imagination?