Posted on by Nicholos Wethington

MIT Shoots For the Moon

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The Moon is a pretty popular destination these days: Google’s X-Prize is already getting applicants, Kaguya and Chang’e-1 are currently snapping pictures and taking measurements, and both India and the U.S. have missions lined up to launch in the next 10 years or so. MIT announced last week that it would join in on the fun, designing a spacecraft to study the Moon, schedule for launch in 2011.

In cooperation with NASA, MIT head a up a mission to send two satellites to simultaneously study the gravity field of the Moon in detail. Named GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory), the mission will study the gravity of the Moon to shed light on its thermal history and composition. By using two satellites to do so, GRAIL will create a map of the Moon’s gravity field that is 1,000 times more accurate than previous maps.

“After the three-month mission is completed, we will know the lunar gravitational field better than we know Earth’s,” said Maria Zuber, head of MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, who will lead the mission.

GRAIL will use a similar method employed by GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment), a mission that has been mapping Earth’s gravitational field since 2002: two satellites constantly measure the distance between each other with great accuracy, thus creating a map as they orbit the Earth and travel through its gravity field.

GRACE uses GPS technology for the positioning of the satellites, something impossible to do on the Moon. Instead, the GRAIL satellites will precisely monitor radio signals coming from the Earth. This technology could also be used in future missions to other planets such as Mars and Venus.

Knowing the interior composition and history of the Moon will allow scientists to have a better understanding of the history of other planets in our Solar System. The evolution of the Moon, and the history of its many impact craters will help to create models for its formation, which serves as a record of planetary formation in the inner planets. Any future missions to land on the Moon could also benefit from extended mapping of the gravity field, as landers could use this data to prevent crashes and help navigate to the surface.

The mission will cost an estimated $375 million. The satellites will be constructed by Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, Colo. and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will develop the communication and navigation systems.

Original Source: MIT Press Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Odyssey Moon is the First Lunar X-Prize Entrant

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I mentioned the $30 million Google Lunar X-Prize a few months ago, but now there’s a bit of an update: the first team has stepped forward and announced that they’ll be trying to claim it. The team is called Odyssey Moon, and it stars International Space University founder Bob Richards and Inmarsat CFO Ramin Khadem. If all goes well, they’ll land a rover on the Moon within the next 7 years.

Just a quick recap. The Google Lunar X-Prize follows on the success of the original Ansari X-Prize. The first private group that can land a rover on the surface of the Moon, and complete a series of challenges before December 31st, 2014 will win $30 million.

Team organizers have said that hundreds of teams have expressed an interest, but nobody has actually filled out the necessary paperwork… until today.

Team Odyssey Moon announced their intention to compete for the Google Lunar X-Prize at the Space Investment Summit in San Jose, California. The team will be based on the Isle of Man, off the coast of England. Not a place known for its bustling space commerce, but the team founders say the location has the right business regulations and tax laws for such an unusual business venture.

And that’s the point, they expect this to be a business venture. Richards and Khadem believe they have a viable business plan for operating a Moon rover business. They’ll finance operations by the delivery of science, exploration and commercial payloads to the surface of the Moon. According to the Odyssey Moon folks, the $30 million prize is just a nice benefit.

For my fellow Canadians, you’ll be please to hear that MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates has been selected as the mission’s prime contractor. MDA has developed the robotic arms used on the space shuttle and International Space Station, and hardware for other space missions.

In addition to the two founders, the Planetary Society announced today that they’re going to pitch in with Odyssey Moon, helping out with education, public involvement, and serving as a science liaison for the project.

Although Odyssey Moon is just the first team to announce their intentions for the $30 million prize, they won’t be the last. Prize founder Peter Diamandis expects that several teams will make launch attempts within a handful of years – it seems unlikely that a rover won’t succeed before the time limit ends.

Original Source: Odyssey Moon

Posted on by Nicholos Wethington

Future Mars Explorers Might Only See the Planet from Orbit

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When the first humans travel to Mars, the journey will be dangerous. Perhaps the most dangerous part will be the landing; the thin Martian atmosphere makes it extremely difficult to slow down a heavy spacecraft carrying humans. To minimize the danger, the first missions to Mars might not have people land on the surface at all. Instead, they might orbit the Red Planet, and control virtual robots working down below. Just imagine how much science Martian rovers controlled by humans could get done, all from the safety of orbit – at a fraction of the cost of actually setting foot on the planet.

“It is a cheaper, simpler, and safer way to explore, and hence it will be a faster way to explore. Virtual exploration will have the excitement of being there, at a fraction of the price, ” Dr. Landis wrote in a paper titled, Teleoperation from Mars orbit: A proposal for human exploration, published in the May 2007 issue of Acta Astronautica.

A mission to Mars using teleoperation would involve robots landed on the surface which would be controlled directly by astronauts in a spacecraft orbiting the planet. The robots would be more sophisticated than current rovers, with hands and bodies that would mimic the movements of a human being, thus allowing the operator to control the robot using a virtual reality interface. The current lag between the commands from the Earth and their reception by the rovers on Mars can be several minutes, but an orbiter controlling the robots would experience almost no delay at all.

Unlike humans, the Robonauts wouldn’t need a habitat on the surface, and could be left there. They could also be equipped with a large variety of scientific equipment, and wouldn’t need to rest, making the exploration of the surface faster and more efficient.

Sure, it seems a little silly to send humans all the way out to Mars without actually landing them on the surface, but doing so poses many challenges that are eliminated by a teleoperation mission. To design and provide fuel for a vehicle to land on the surface, and then take off, is very expensive both in terms of weight and money.

We still don’t know if there is life on the surface of Mars, so being very careful not to contaminate the surface with Earth microbes is also important. Any missions that land on the surface have the potential of leaving life from our own planet there, making it difficult to later determine the origin of life on Mars – if any exists – and Earth microbes could possibly wipe out any Martian life.

Also, the effect potential life on Mars could have on human beings is unknown, so it is better to be safe than risk the lives of astronauts through exposure to possibly harmful alien life.

Teleoperated missions would expand the areas of Mars that could be explored, since the issue of safety is not as much of concern when using robots.

“Landing sites for a human mission are likely to be scientifically “boring” sites, featuring flat surfaces with an absence of boulders, cliffs, channels, craters or mountains. Use of telerobots lowers risk, and thereby allows dangerous exploration,” Dr. Landis wrote.

Teleoperation wouldn’t be the end, of Mars exploration, though; it’s merely a step towards landing humans on the planet to ensure the safety of astronauts and gain better information on how to conduct future missions.

Source: Acta Astronautica

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Voyager 2 is About to Cross the Termination Shock

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NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft is about to cross another milestone on its long journey leaving the Solar System. According to researchers at the University of California, Riverside, the plucky spacecraft is about to pass through the “termination shock”; the point at which the Sun’s solar wind slows down to subsonic speed.

According to UC Riverside researcher Haruichi Washimi, the spacecraft will cross the termination show in late 2007-early 2008. This research will be published in the December 1st edition of The Astrophysical Journal.

As you probably know, there’s a blast of particles coming from the Sun at all times. This stream of charged particles is called the solar wind, and it’s moving at supersonic speeds when it leaves the Sun.

At a certain region of space, between 11 and 13.5 billion km (7-8.5 billion miles) from the Sun, this solar wind is decelerated to less than the speed of sound because of interactions with the interstellar wind that permeates the Milky Way.

Once Voyager crosses the termination shock, it’ll be in the outer heliosphere. Actually, though, it’s going to have to cross the termination shock multiple times. That’s because this line fluctuates inward and outward depending on the strength of the solar wind.

Washimi’s calculations predict that the spacecraft will pass through the shock later this year, and then again in the middle of 2008.

The final stage in the Voyagers’ journey will occur when they reach the heliopause; the boundary where the interstellar medium completely halts the solar wind. After that, they’ll be out of the Solar System, and just traveling out into the galaxy.

Original Source: UC Riverside News Release

Posted on by Nicholos Wethington

How to Keep a Venus Rover Cool

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In comparison to a mission to Venus, missions to Mars or the Moon are a cakewalk. With temperatures exceeding 450ºC (840ºF) and pressures over 92 times that of the surface of the Earth, landing a rover on the surface of Venus is quite a feat. This, however, is exactly what a research and development team at the NASA John Glenn Research Center hopes to accomplish.

Venus has been explored by a number of different missions, but there is a lot of science yet to be done on the planet.

“Understanding the atmosphere, climate, geology, and history of Venus could shed considerable light on our understanding of our own home planet. Yet the surface of Venus is the most hostile operating environment of any of the solid-surface planets in the solar system,” wrote Dr. Geoffrey Landis of the NASA John Glenn Research Center.

The extreme conditions on Venus make traditional rover technology impossible: the heat and pressure combined wreak havoc on any electronic components, and the atmosphere of Venus, mostly composed of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid, is highly corrosive on metal parts. And if this weren’t enough, the thick atmosphere makes the light conditions on the surface like a rainy day on Earth, which limits the potential of solar energy.

To solve the problem of putting electronics on the surface, the team will split the mission into two: a rover that will have limited electronic components in pressurized chamber cooled to under 300ºC (570ºF), and an airplane that will fly in the middle atmosphere of the planet, where the temperature is more moderate and the pressure not as great. The airplane will contain most of the more sensitive electrical components like computers, and will assist in relaying all the information back to Earth.

The Russian Venera lander to last the longest on the surface of Venus operated for a mere two hours before being crushed, but the rover for this mission will be designed to last more than 50 days.

Extreme conditions call for extreme technology; the team analyzed the possibility of using a number of different sources of energy, from solar to nuclear to microwave beaming. Solar power just can’t provide the energy necessary to run the rover and cool everything down, and microwave beaming energy from the airplane – which would collect solar energy – isn’t feasible because of how new the technology is.

This leaves nuclear power, something that has been used in past missions such as Galileo, Voyager, the current Cassini probe. To power the rover with nuclear energy, though, there is a twist: the heat produced by bricks of Plutonium will power a Stirling engine, an engine that uses the pressure difference between two chambers to produce mechanical energy with very high efficiency. This mechanical energy can be used to power the wheels directly, or transferred to electrical energy for the electrical and cooling systems, and the technology is being adapted to work on Venus.

“We’ve been working on Stirling technology for many years. The project reported was a project to design a Stirling specifically for Venus – which makes for a very different design in some ways; notably in that the heat rejection temperature is extremely hot – but we are building from existing technology, not developing it from scratch,” wrote Dr. Landis

The airplane would study the atmospheric conditions and Venus’ electric field, while the rover would place seismic stations and study surface conditions. A camera is almost definite on the airplane, and while it would be difficult to put a camera on the rover, it is not entirely out of the question.

When can you expect to see images of the surface, or hear more about the sulfuric acid clouds that envelop the planet?

“It’s a mission concept study so far, not a funded mission, so it’s not actually scheduled to take place. However, there’s a lot of interest in flying it in the 2015-2020 time frame,” said Dr. Landis.

Source: Acta Astronautica

Posted on by Fraser Cain

First Look at the Orion Crew Module

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I know it seems like we’ve had the space shuttle forever, and will have it forever, but the program will actually be shut down in just a few short years. What comes next? The Constellation program will continue the US human spaceflight efforts, eventually bringing people back to the Moon. As part of the program, workers at NASA unveiled a mockup of the Orion crew module.

The lifesize Orion crew module was build by engineers at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center’s Fabrication Branch. No, this aluminum mockup won’t actually be flying. It won’t even be used for aerodynamic testing. It’s just going to help engineers figure out how to cram everything in.

As the engineers are developing the various avionics systems, instrumentation, wire harness routing, etc, they’ll want a life-size mockup of the module to test how things fit together. Eventually, you can imagine future astronauts crawling inside, and giving engineers their feedback on the placement of the instrumentation, the feel of the controls, and cushiness of the seats.

This mockup will help engineers until the first abort flight test vehicle, called “Boilerplate 1” arrives for testing. This next testing vehicle is a flying simulator that will mimic the flight characteristics of the actual vehicle. Boilerplate 1 will have the same mass, dimensions, and aerodynamic properties of the Orion capsule, so it can be tested in wind tunnels and atop rockets.

NASA is planning two pad abort, and four ascent tests of the launch abort system as early as 2008, and continuing on through 2011.

So, don’t worry, the age of the space shuttle is almost over, and the age of the Constellation program is almost here. Look out Moon, here we come.

Original Source: NASA Dryden News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

NASA is Building the Third Tallest Roller Coaster in the World, as an Escape System

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Let’s hope that nothing ever goes wrong while astronauts are preparing to launch on their Ares 1 rocket – the new vehicle that will replace the space shuttle. But if there is a problem, and the astronauts need to escape right now, they’ll have a fun ride down – on the 3rd tallest roller coaster in the world. It’s called the Orion Emergency Egress System, but really, it’s a roller coaster, designed to get the astronauts away from the vehicle and into a protective bunker in moments.

Take a good look at the image that goes along with this story. See the bright yellow rails over on the right hand side of the image, dropping straight down from the gray platform. That’s the escape system. You’ll note it goes straight down.

The purpose of the Orion Emergency Egress System is to get astronauts and support personnel away from the Ares 1 vehicle, and into a safety bunker within 4 minutes. The solution that NASA has come up with should be perfect, carrying astronauts and workers down away from the rocket, right to the bunker’s door.

For previous launch vehicles, NASA had cables near the door to the launch vehicle. If there was a problem, people could enter a basket that slides down a cable to an area near the bunker. The problem was that it was very difficult to get incapacitated people into the basket and down to the safety of the bunker. With the new egress system, healthy workers can just put the wounded in seats and let them ride down to safety.

NASA called in the world’s roller coaster designers to help them create the system. In fact, from a height of 116 metres (380 feet), the Orion Emergency Egress System would be the third tallest roller coaster in the world, after the Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, and the Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio.

Original Source: NASA News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Tether to Keep Asteroid Explorers Grounded

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Here on Earth, gravity keeps us firmly on solid ground. But when astronauts set foot on some of the more exotic objects in the Solar System, just walking is going to be a struggle. In the microgravity of an asteroid, every step astronauts take will send him flying up in a long arc, and maybe out into space. It would be almost impossible to get around. Fortunately, MIT researchers have developed a tether system that could keep astronauts firmly anchored to the surface, but still let them walk around.

When humans first set foot on the Moon, they learned right away that the lower gravity was going to cause problems getting around. It took a few missions, but astronauts finally perfected a silly-looking hop that allowed them to skip around in the 1/6th gravity. But on an asteroid which can be only a few kilometres across, the wrong step could put an astronaut into orbit; the gravity’s that low. As long as the asteroid is above 8 km or so, a wrong footed astronaut would eventually return to the surface, but it would make exploration infuriating.

What the MIT researchers have developed is a tether system that astronauts would attach to the surface of the asteroid. The ropes would be strung completely around the asteroid, sort of like putting a rubber band around a ball. Once the lightweight ropes were in place, they would apply pressure downward on the astronauts, giving them a sort of artificial gravity. The idea will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Acta Astronautica.

Previous researchers have suggested that astronauts could bolt themselves to the surface of the asteroid, but that might not be possible. Researcher Ian Garrick-Bethell describes the flaw in that plan, “it would be like trying to bolt yourself to a pile of gravel or sand.”

The team envisions a rocket that would fly around the asteroid, unraveling a spool of rope. Once the spacecraft completes an orbit of the asteroid, the loop is formed and then tightened.

Nobody still really knows what the surface of an asteroid will be like. Even this might now work, as the rope might cut into the surface of the asteroid and not be usable to hold an astronaut down. But at least they could use it as a handhold to drag themselves along without flying away.

Original Source: MIT News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Everything’s Go for Saturday’s Phoenix Lander Launch

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All systems look good for Saturday’s launch of NASA Phoenix Mars Lander from Florida’s Cape Canaveral. If everything goes as planned, the latest visitor to the Red Planet will blast off as early as August 4th at 0926 UTC (5:26 am EDT) atop a Boeing Delta II rocket. A second launch windows is also possible later on in the day.

The Delta II rocket will carry the Phoenix into orbit, and then give it a push into its flight trajectory about 90 minutes later. This will begin the 8 month journey to reach the Red Planet; the spacecraft will eventually cover a distance of 679 million kilometres, arriving at Mars on May 25, 2008.

When it reaches Mars, the spacecraft will enter the planet’s atmosphere directly, aiming for a landing spot at 68.35 degrees north latitude – the equivalent of northern Alaska back on Earth. It will reach the surface using a combination of parachutes and retro-rockets.

Once it gets to the ground, the Mars Phoenix Lander is stuck; it’s a lander, not a rover. It’ll use a collection of scientific instruments, including a long digging arm to investigate its surroundings. Its will be to probe down into the ground beneath the surface, searching for water. The lander’s instruments are designed to search for evidence of periodic melting of the ice. This would help scientists know if this region represents a habitable environment for microbes.

Good luck Phoenix.

Original Source:NASA JPL News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Carnival of Space #14

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The carnival is back in town. Once again, I’m happy to host all manner of space blogs with the Carnival of Space. This gives you a chance to see how there’s a great big Universe of space writing out there. It’s a big group this week.

On the 38th anniversary of the first Moon landing, FlyingSinger recalled where he was on that day, how a supportive teacher had helped him get there, and how being there helped him to get into college and beyond. It’s really the story of how a young space nerd eventually became… a much older space nerd.

Astroblog has some stupid mobile phone tricks. Following “Animations of Venus”, made with low cost equipment, the ultimate low cost astrophotography, with a mobile phone camera. Amaze your friends!

After a terrible week for NASA, voices are again being raised accusing the space program of being too expensive and too dangerous, an extravagant luxury we can’t afford. This post on Cumbrian Sky looks at the recent events that have dominated the headlines, and concludes that despite setbacks like this, the “conquest of space” is ultimately inevitable, and something we should celebrate and support, not dismiss.

Phil for Humanity jumps into the debate whether people or robots should explore outer space. He gives a more detailed investigation into both sides of the argument.

Poor Pluto. As we near the one year anniversary of the IAU’s historic ‘re-definition-ing’ of the word planet, many people know that Pluto is no longer a planet, but a large majority of people don’t know why Pluto is not a planet. The common misconception is that Pluto itself was demoted, when in fact, the definition of the word ‘Planet’ was changed; and Pluto just did not fit the definition. Astroversity gives you an easy-to-follow explanation of why Pluto is no longer a planet.

The Moon is an ideal location for a variety of observations. A Babe in the Universe has an article about how a 2-meter multi-wavelength instrument could be placed on the Moon in a short time at a surprisingly low cost.

Advancednano discusses a variant of the nuclear thermal gaseous core rocket, which does not put any radiation into the atmosphere yet has 6.7 times the ISP of the space shuttle and can lift 40 times the cargo of the space shuttle.

Want to hunt comets and asteroids using images from the STEREO spacecraft? Astroblog gives you a handy guide to help you along, and an important note on the pesky problem of parallax.

Astropixie talks about the Martian blueberries, how they were formed, and their implications for water and life on Mars.

When astronauts get back to the Moon, it would be handy if they could pick up their oxygen locally. Spacefiles explains the ways you can extract oxygen from lunar regolith.

Emily Lakdawalla from the Planetary Society blog has an article about Saturn’s moon Helene. Voyager 2’s best view of Helene showed a blob a few pictures across. Cassini has been getting closer and closer to Dione’s co-orbital moon, and the most recent pictures showed a blocky world with sharp craters and mountainous ridges.

Selenian Boondocks has a brief overview of some recent research that suggests the our nearest neighbor might be a much more interesting place – both scientifically and economically – than previously imagined.

Centauri Dreams has an article called Galactic Drift and Mass Extinction. It looks at recent work on a possible cycle in mass extinction events on Earth that may be related to the Solar System’s position in the Milky Way.

Normally cynical, the Space Cynics are downright excited by the new 25 meter sub-millimeter telescope being built in Chile.

Before people can dream about mining asteroids, we are going to need to figure out how to land on them first – a problem that NASA and DigitalSpace may have already solved. Colony Worlds has the story.

Robot Guy has the space video of the week. This time, it’s the X-Prize winning flight of Scaled Composites’ SpaceShipOne.

Dr. Pamela Gay has all the details on a new study of 231 low metallicity stars in the local neighborhood points to past objects getting eaten by the Milky Way. As these stars pass though out area as the orbit in from the Halo, they let us learn about their past: where they came from and when they where eaten.

Phil Plait highlights some beautiful photographs of the Veil Nebula, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.

And finally, for my own humble submission, I look forward through time, though the End of Everything.