Posted on by Fraser Cain

Force on Asteroids Measured for the First Time

Image credit: NASA/JPL

NASA scientists have measured a tiny force for the first time which is known to act on asteroids; subtly changing their orbits and speed of rotation. The force, called the Yarkovsky Effect, is produced by the way an asteroid absorbs energy from the Sun, and then radiates it back into space as heat – the force is tiny, only a few grams, but over time it can make a significant change. Asteroid 6489 has been tracked by astronomers since 1991, and they’ve found that it’s shifted its orbit 15 km since then.

NASA scientists have for the first time detected a tiny but theoretically important force acting on asteroids by measuring an extremely subtle change in a near-Earth asteroid?s orbital path. This force, called the Yarkovsky Effect, is produced by the way an asteroid absorbs energy from the sun and re-radiates it into space as heat. The research will impact how scientists understand and track asteroids in the future.

Asteroid 6489 “Golevka” is relatively inconspicuous by near- Earth asteroid standards. It is only one half-kilometer (.33 mile) across, although it weighs in at about 210 billion kilograms (460 billion pounds). But as unremarkable as Golevka is on a celestial scale it is also relatively well characterized, having been observed via radar in 1991, 1995, 1999 and this past May. An international team of astronomers, including researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., have used this comprehensive data set to make a detailed analysis of the asteroid?s orbital path. The team’s report appears in the December 5 issue of “Science.”

“For the first time we have proven that asteroids can literally propel themselves through space, albeit very slowly,” said Dr. Steven Chesley, a scientist at NASA?s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and leader of the study.

The idea behind the Yarkovsky Effect is the simple notion that an asteroid?s surface is heated by the sun during the day and then cools off during the night. Because of this the asteroid tends to emit more heat from its afternoon side, just as the evening twilight on Earth is warmer than the morning twilight. This unbalanced thermal radiation produces a tiny acceleration that has until now gone unmeasured.

“The amount of force exerted by the Yarkovsky Effect, about an ounce in the case of Golevka, is incredibly small, especially considering the asteroid?s overall mass,” said Chesley. “But over the 12 years that Golevka has been observed, that small force has caused a shift of 15 kilometers (9.4 miles). Apply that same force over tens of millions of years and it can have a huge effect on an asteroid?s orbit. Asteroids that orbit the Sun between Mars and Jupiter can actually become near-Earth asteroids.”

The Yarkovsky Effect has become an essential tool for understanding several aspects of asteroid dynamics. Theoreticians have used it to explain such phenomena as the rate of asteroid transport from the main belt to the inner solar system, the ages of meteorite samples, and the characteristics of so-called “asteroid families” that are formed when a larger asteroid is disrupted by collision. And yet, despite its profound theoretical significance, the force has never been detected, much less measured, for any asteroid until now.

“Once a near-Earth asteroid is discovered, radar is the most powerful astronomical technique for measuring its physical characteristics and determining its exact orbit,” said Dr. Steven Ostro, a JPL scientist and a contributor to the paper. “To give you an idea of just how powerful ? our radar observation was like pinpointing to within a half inch the distance of a basketball in New York using a softball-sized radar dish in Los Angeles.”

To obtain their landmark findings, the scientists utilized an advanced model of the Yarkovsky Effect developed by Dr. David Vokrouhlick? of Charles University, Prague. Vokrouhlick? led a 2000 study that predicted the possibility of detecting the subtle force acting on Golevka during its 2003 approach to Earth.

“We predicted that the acceleration should be detectable, but we were not at all certain how strong it would be,” said Vokrouhlick?. “With the radar data we have been able to answer that question.”

Using the measurement of the Yarkovsky acceleration the team has for the first time determined the mass and density of a small solitary asteroid using ground-based observations. This opens up a whole new avenue of study for near-Earth asteroids, and it is only a matter of time before many more asteroids are “weighed” in this manner.

In addition to Chesley, Ostro and Vokrouhlick?, authors of the report include Jon Giorgini, Dr. Alan Chamberlin and Dr. Lance Benner of JPL; David ?apek, Charles University, Prague, Dr. Michael Nolan, Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico, Dr. Jean-Luc Margot, University of California, Los Angeles, and Alice Hine, Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico.

Arecibo Observatory is operated by Cornell University under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation and with support from NASA. NASA?s Office of Space Science, Washington, DC supported the radar observations. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasdena.

More information about NASA’s planetary missions, astronomical observations, and laboratory measurements are available on the Internet at: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/

Information about NASA programs is available on the Internet at: www.nasa.gov

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena

Original Source: NASA/JPL News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Astronauts Announced for STS-121

Image credit: NASA

NASA has announced four astronauts who will launch on the space shuttle for mission STS-121; the mission after the shuttle returns to flight in late 2004. STS-121 was added to the schedule to help take over some of the tasks that were originally required on the Return to Flight mission. Commander Steven W. Lindsey, pilot Mark E. Kelly and mission specialists Carlos I. Noriega and Michael E. Fossum will be joined by three more unnamed crew members. They will re-supply the International Space Station and continue testing new hardware developed as part of the return to flight process.

Four NASA astronauts have been chosen to fly on the newly created Space Shuttle mission, STS-121. It is the mission following the Space Shuttle’s Return to Flight.

Veteran astronaut Steven W. Lindsey (Col., USAF) is the commander of STS-121. Mark E. Kelly (Cmdr., USN) is the pilot; Carlos I. Noriega (Lt. Col., USMC, Ret.) and Michael E. Fossum are the mission specialists. Other crewmembers will be named later.

STS-121 was added to the flight schedule to help accommodate the growing list of requirements originally assigned to the Return to Flight mission. The crew will re-supply the International Space Station with equipment and consumables. They will also continue the testing and development of new hardware and procedures designed to make Space Shuttle flight safer.

The crew recently began their pre-mission training together at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston. Initial activities focus on general procedural training on Shuttle and Station systems, preliminary spacewalk development and robotics training.

Lindsey is a three-time Shuttle astronaut, including commanding the STS-104 mission in 2001. Kelly has flown in space once, and Noriega twice. Fossum is making his first trip.

For crew biographies visit:

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/

For information about NASA and the human space flight program on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

Original Source: NASA News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Astronomers Find a Pair of Neutron Stars

Image credit: CSIRO

Astronomers have discovered a pair of neutron stars that could assist in the search for the long theorized “gravity waves”, first predicted by Einstein. Separated by only 800,000 kilometres, the twin objects take only two hours to rotate each other. The theory is that the pair is losing energy in the form of gravity waves, and will eventually slow down and merge with a blast of energy. This new discovery tells astronomers that these twin neutron stars are more common than previously believed, and new gravity wave detectors should locate a merger every year or two, and not once a decade.

Neutron star pairs may merge and give off a burst of gravity waves about six times more often than previously thought, scientists report in today?s issue of the journal Nature [4 December]. If so, the current generation of gravity-wave detectors might be able to register such an event every year or two, rather than about once a decade ? the most optimistic prediction until now.

Gravity waves were predicted by Einstein?s general theory of relativity. Astronomers have indirect evidence of their existence but have not yet detected them directly.

The revised estimate of the neutron-star merger rate springs from the discovery of a double neutron-star system, a pulsar called PSR J0737-3039 and its neutron-star companion, by a team of scientists from Italy, Australia, the UK and the USA using the 64-m CSIRO Parkes radio telescope in eastern Australia.

Neutron stars are city-sized balls of a highly dense, unusual form of matter. A pulsar is a special type ? a spinning neutron star that emits radio waves.

PSR J0737-3039 and its companion are just the sixth known system of two neutron stars. They lie 1600-2000 light-years (500-600 pc) away in our Galaxy.

Separated by 800,000 km ? about twice the distance between the Earth and Moon ? the two stars orbit each other in just over two hours.

Systems with such extreme speeds have to be modelled with Einstein?s general theory of relativity.

?That theory predicts that the system is losing energy in the form of gravity waves,? said lead author Marta Burgay, a PhD student at the University of Bologna.

?The two stars are in a ?dance of death?, slowly spiralling together.?

In 85 million years the doomed stars will fuse, rippling spacetime with a burst of gravity waves.

?If the burst happened in our time, it could be picked up by one of the current generation of gravitational wave detectors, such as LIGO-I, VIRGO or GEO? said team leader Professor Nicol? D?Amico, Director of the Cagliari Astronomical Observatory in Sardinia.

The previous estimate of the neutron-star merger rate was strongly influenced by the characteristics of just one system, the pulsar B1913+16 and its companion. PSR B1913+16 was the first relativistic binary system discovered and studied, and the first used to show the existence of gravitational radiation.

PSR J0737-3039 and its companion are an even more extreme system, and now form the best laboratory for testing Einstein?s prediction of orbital shrinking.

The new pulsar also boosts the merger rate, for two reasons.

It won?t live as long as PSR B1913+16, the astronomers say. And pulsars like it are probably more common than ones like PSR B1913+16.

?These two effects push the merger rate up by a factor of six or seven,? said team member Dr Dick Manchester of CSIRO.

But the actual numerical value of that rate depends on assumptions about how pulsars are distributed in our Galaxy.

?Under the most favourable distribution model, we can say at the 95% confidence level that this first generation of gravitational wave detectors could register a neutron star merger every one to two years,? said Dr Vicky Kalogera, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern University in Illinois, USA.

Dr Kalogera and colleagues Chunglee Kim and Duncan Lorimer have modelled binary coalescence rates using a range of assumptions.

The new result is ?good news for gravity-wave astronomers,? according to team member Professor Andrew Lyne, Director of the Jodrell Bank Observatory of the University of Manchester in the UK.

?They may get to study one of these cosmic catastrophes every few years, instead of having to wait half a career,? he said.

Original Source: CSIRO News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

The Gamble of Getting to Mars

Image credit: NASA/JPL

The odds aren’t great. For every three missions sent to Mars, two fail. With NASA’s twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, now only a few weeks away from their encounter with the Red Planet, it’s important to appreciate the challenges they still have to face. Already in space for five months, they’ve endured several solar storms. But the hardest work is still to come: they have to decelerate through the atmosphere, deploy their parachutes, and then land on their airbags.

Two out of three missions to the red planet have failed. One reason there have been so many losses is that there have been so many attempts. “Mars is a favorite target,” says Dr. Firouz Naderi, manager of the Mars Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “We — the United States and former USSR — have been going to Mars for 40 years. The first time we flew by a planet, it was Mars. The first time we orbited a planet, it was Mars. The first time we landed on a planet it was Mars, and the first time we roved around the surface of a planet, it was Mars. We go there often.”

Another reason is that getting to Mars is hard.

To get there, Spirit and Opportunity, the two Mars Exploration Rovers launched this past June and July, will have to fly through about 483 million kilometers (300 million miles) of deep space and target a very precise spot to land. Adjustments to their flight paths can be made along the way, but a small trajectory error can result in a big detour and or even missing the planet completely.

The space environment isn’t friendly. Hazards range from what engineers call “single event upsets,” as when a stray particle of energy passes through a chip in the spacecraft’s computer causing a glitch and possibly corrupting data, to massive solar flares, such as the ones that occurred this fall, that can damage or even destroy spacecraft electronics.

The road to the launch pad is nearly as daunting as the journey to Mars. Even before the trip to Mars can begin, a craft must be built that not only can make the arduous trip but can complete its science mission once it arrives. Nothing less than exceptional technology and planning is required.

If getting to Mars is hard, landing there is even harder. “One colleague describes the entry, descent and landing as six minutes of terror,” says Naderi.

Spirit and Opportunity will enter the martian space traveling 19,300 kilometers per hour (12,000 miles per hour). “During the first four minutes into descent, we use friction with the atmosphere to slow us down considerably,” says Naderi. “However, at the end of this phase, we’re still traveling at 1,600 kilometers per hour (1,000 miles per hour), but now we have only 100 seconds left and are at the altitude that a commercial airliner typically flies. Things need to happen in a hurry. A parachute opens to slow the spacecraft down to ‘only’ 321 kilometers per hour (200 miles per hour), but now we have only 6 seconds left and are only 91 meters (100 yards) off the ground. Now, the retro rockets fire to bring the spacecraft down to zero velocity, and we’re the height of a four-story building above the surface. The spacecraft freefalls the rest of the way cocooned in airbags to cushion the blow. It hits the ground at 48 kilometers per hour (30 miles per hour) or 80 kilometers per hour (50 miles per hour) if it is windy. It bounces as high as a four-story building and continues to bounce afterward, perhaps 30 times all together. What’s inside the airbag weighs 453 kilograms (half a ton). So, the challenge of entry, descent and landing is how to get something that massive traveling at 19,300 kilometers per hour (12,000 miles per hour) slowed down in six minutes to have a chance of survival.”

Mars doesn’t exactly put out a welcome mat. Landing is complicated by difficult terrain. The martian surface is full of obstacles–massive impact craters, cliffs, cracks and jagged boulders. Even the toughest airbag can be punctured if it hits a bad rock. Unpredictable winds can also stir up further complications.

No matter how hard it is, getting to Mars is just the beginning. “The challenge after we land,” says Rob Manning, manager of Mars Exploration Rovers entry, descent and landing operations, “is how to get the vehicle out of its cramped cocoon and into a vehicle roving in such a way as to please the scientists.”

The rewards are great. “Mars is the most Earth-like of the planets in our solar system,” says Naderi. “It has the potential to have been an abode of life.”

The risks are also great. “We do everything humanly possible and try to avoid human mistakes,” says Naderi. “That’s why we check, double check, test and test again and then have independent eyes check everything again. Humans, even very smart humans, are fallible particularly when many thousands of parameters are involved. But even if you have done the best engineering possible, you still don’t know what Mars has in store for you on the day your arrive. Mars can get you.”

“We are in a tough business,” says Naderi. “It is like climbing Mt. Everest. No matter how good you are, you are going to lose your grip sometimes and fall back. Then you have a choice, either retreat to the relative comfort and safety of the base camp, or get up, dust yourself off, get a firmer grip and a surer toehold and head back up for the summit. The space business is not about base camps. It is about summits. And, the exhilaration of discoveries you make once you get there. That is what drives you on.”

Original Source: NASA/JPL News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Earth’s Field Opens Up for the Solar Wind

Image credit: NASA

Researchers have discovered that temporary cracks can form in the Earth’s magnetic field that can permit some of the solar wind’s energy to slip through and disrupt electronics and communications. These observations were made using NASA’s Imager for Magnetopause to Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) satellite, which tracked a large aurora for several hours. The ESA’s Cluster satellites flew over the same location and spotted a stream of ions slipping through a crack which normally should have been deflected by the Earth’s magnetosphere.

Immense cracks in the Earth’s magnetic field remain open for hours, allowing the solar wind to gush through and power stormy space weather, according to new observations from the IMAGE and Cluster satellites.

The cracks were detected before but researchers now know they can remain open for long periods, rather than opening and closing for just very brief intervals. This new discovery about how the Earth’s magnetic shield is breached is expected to help space physicists give better estimates of the effects of severe space weather.

“We discovered that our magnetic shield is drafty, like a house with a window stuck open during a storm,” said Dr. Harald Frey of the University of California, Berkeley, lead author of a paper on this research published Dec. 4 in Nature. “The house deflects most of the storm, but the couch is ruined. Similarly, our magnetic shield takes the brunt of space storms, but some energy continually slips through its cracks, sometimes enough to cause problems with satellites, radio communication, and power systems.”

“The new knowledge that the cracks are open for long periods, instead of opening and closing sporadically, can be incorporated into our space weather forecasting computer models to more accurately predict how our space weather is influenced by violent events on the Sun,” said Dr. Tai Phan, also of UC Berkeley, co-author of the Nature paper.

The solar wind is a stream of electrically charged particles (electrons and ions) blown constantly from the Sun (Image 1). The solar wind transfers energy from the Sun to the Earth through the magnetic fields it carries and its high speed (hundreds of miles/kilometers per second). It can get gusty during violent solar events, like Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), which can shoot a billion tons of electrified gas into space at millions of miles per hour.

Earth has a magnetic field that extends into space for tens of thousands of miles, surrounding the planet and forming a protective barrier to the particles and snarled magnetic fields the Sun blasts toward it during CMEs. However, space storms, which can dump 1,000 billion watts — more than America’s total electric generating capacity — into the Earth’s magnetic field, indicated that the shield was not impenetrable.

In 1961, Dr. Jim Dungey of the Imperial College, United Kingdom, predicted that cracks might form in the magnetic shield when the solar wind contained a magnetic field that was oriented in the opposite direction to a portion of the Earth’s field. In these regions, the two magnetic fields would interconnect through a process known as “magnetic reconnection,” forming a crack in the shield through which the electrically charged particles of the solar wind could flow. (Image 2 illustrates the crack formation, and Animation 1 shows how solar wind particles flow through the crack by following invisible magnetic field lines.) In 1979, Dr. Goetz Paschmann, of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Germany, detected the cracks using the International Sun Earth Explorer (ISEE) spacecraft. However, since this spacecraft only briefly passed through the cracks during its orbit, it was unknown if the cracks were temporary features or if they were stable for long periods.

In the new observations, the Imager for Magnetopause to Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) satellite revealed an area almost the size of California in the arctic upper atmosphere (ionosphere) where a 75-megawatt “proton” aurora flared for hours (Image 4). This aurora, energetic enough to power 75,000 homes, was different from the visible aurora known as the Northern and Southern lights. It was generated by heavy particles (ions) hitting the upper atmosphere and causing it to emit ultraviolet light, which is invisible to the human eye but detectable by the Far Ultraviolet Imager on IMAGE. (Image 6 and Animation 4 show IMAGE’s observations of the proton aurora).

While the aurora was being recorded by IMAGE, the 4-satellite Cluster constellation flew far above IMAGE, directly through the crack, and detected solar wind ions streaming through (Image 5). Normally, these solar wind ions would be deflected by Earth’s shield (Image 3), so Cluster’s observation showed a crack was present. This stream of solar wind ions bombarded our atmosphere in precisely the same region where IMAGE saw the proton aurora. The fact that IMAGE was able to view the proton aurora for more than 9 hours, until IMAGE progressed in its orbit to where it could not observe the aurora, implies that the crack remained continuously open. (Animation 2 shows how the spacecraft worked together to reveal the crack.) Estimating from the IMAGE and Cluster data, the crack was twice the size of the Earth at the boundary of our magnetic shield, about 38,000 miles (60,000 km) above the planet’s surface. Since the magnetic field converges as it enters the Earth in the polar regions, the crack narrowed to about the size of California down near the upper atmosphere.

IMAGE is a NASA satellite launched March 25, 2000 to provide a global view of the space around Earth influenced by the Earth’s magnetic field. The Cluster satellites, built by the European Space Agency and launched July 16, 2000, are making a three-dimensional map of the Earth’s magnetic field.

Original Source: NASA News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Boeing CEO Resigns

Image credit: Boeing

Boeing chairman and CEO Phil Condit announced his resignation this week after a flurry of scandals rocked the company over the last few weeks. His departure follows the company’s CFO, Michael Sears, who was investigated for unethical conduct in the hiring of an Air Force official this year. Boeing was also hit with ethics violations from the Pentagon after it was revealed that the company had stolen a competitor’s documents during a bid for space launch services. Condit himself isn’t under investigation, however.

announced today that its board of directors has accepted the resignation of Phil Condit, 62, as chairman and CEO. After thorough deliberations, the board decided that a new structure for the leadership of the company is needed and named Lewis E. Platt, 62, as non-executive chairman and Harry C. Stonecipher, 67, as president and CEO, effective immediately.

Both Platt and Stonecipher are experienced leaders who are knowledgeable about the company?s operations and strategy. Platt has been a member of Boeing?s board of directors for four years; he is a retired chairman of the board, president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard Company. Stonecipher retired from Boeing in 2002 after working closely with Condit for five years in several roles, including vice chairman, president and chief operating officer. Stonecipher also has served as a Boeing director for six years.

“Boeing is advancing on several of the most important programs in its history and I offered my resignation as a way to put the distractions and controversies of the past year behind us, and to place the focus on our performance,” Condit said. “I am proud of the strategies that have transformed Boeing into the world?s largest aerospace company, and I have the highest regard and respect for Lew and Harry. They each possess the knowledge, experience and leadership to take this company to the next level. I will watch the progress of Boeing with great pride.”

“The board appreciates that Phil acted with characteristic dignity and selflessness in recognizing that his resignation was for the good of the company,” said the new chairman, Lew Platt. “We accepted his decision with sadness, but also with the knowledge that changes needed to be made. The board is confident that the new leadership will bring a renewed focus on execution and performance.

“The board is in unanimous agreement that the company has been pursuing the right transformation strategy and that Boeing is in excellent financial condition,” he said.

“As the non-executive chairman, I will bring to bear the full strength and perspective of the board in guiding the company and assisting Harry in any way he requests. Harry will be responsible for executing our strategy and running every aspect of the company,” Platt said.

“Boeing has a solid foundation for the future ? strong businesses, valuable assets, and thousands of hard-working, dedicated people ? and we are all deeply grateful to Phil for his contributions and accomplishments,” Stonecipher said.

“We have the right strategy. The task before us is to execute. We need to strengthen our reputation with our customers, employees, investors and the communities in which we operate. Lew and I, and the entire board, are determined that the events of the last year no longer obscure the company?s strengths or distract us from what we need to do. Boeing is a great company with tremendous capabilities to define the future in each of our markets and deliver consistent, profitable growth,” said Stonecipher.

Lew Platt joined Hewlett-Packard in 1966 in the medical products operations and went on to manage various parts of HP?s computer business. He became an executive vice president in 1987 and retired in 1999 after serving seven years as chairman, CEO and president of HP. He was the CEO of Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates from 2000 to mid-2001.

Platt earned his bachelor?s degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University and has a master?s degree in business administration from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. He serves on the boards of 7-Eleven, The Packard Foundation and the Wharton School.

Harry Stonecipher?s aerospace career spans more than 47 years from his start at General Motors? Allison Division as a lab technician to being elected vice chairman of The Boeing Company in 2001. In 1960, he joined General Electric?s aircraft engine operations, and progressed through a series of engineering and program positions, ending up running the division from 1984 to 1987.

In 1987, Stonecipher left GE to join Sundstrand and shortly thereafter became president and chief operating officer. He became president and CEO in 1989 and assumed the additional office of chairman in 1991. During his seven and a half years at Sundstrand, Stonecipher repaired the company?s seriously damaged customer relationship with the U.S. Department of Defense.

Stonecipher joined McDonnell Douglas in 1994 as president and CEO. In his short 33 months at the aerospace company he increased the financial performance of the enterprise, saw a four-fold increase in the share price, and led the merger with Boeing in 1997. At completion of the merger, Stonecipher was elected president and chief operating officer and a member of Boeing?s board.

He has a bachelor?s degree in physics from Tennessee Technological University and serves on the board of directors of PACCAR, Inc.

Original Source: Boeing News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

One Month Until Spirit Lands

Image credit: NASA/JPL

NASA’s twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, are still on track to reach the Red Planet in early January. Spirit, which launched first, is scheduled to arrive on the evening of January 3, 2004 near the centre of Gusev Crater, which might have held a lake in the past. The spacecraft will jettison its cruise stage 15 minutes before hitting the top of the Martian atmosphere, and then will slow down to only 1,500 kph before deploying its parachute. 20 seconds later its retrorockets will fire and the spacecraft will cushion its final few metres with an airbag. The rover will then spend three months exploring the Martian surface.

NASA’S robotic Mars geologist, Spirit, embodying America’s enthusiasm for exploration, must run a grueling gantlet of challenges before it can start examining the red planet. Spirit’s twin Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, also faces tough Martian challenges.

“The risk is real, but so is the potential reward of using these advanced rovers to improve our understanding of how planets work,” said Dr. Ed Weiler, associate administrator for space science at NASA Headquarters, Washington.

Spirit is the first of two golf-cart-sized rovers headed for Mars landings in January. The rovers will seek evidence about whether the environment in two regions might once have been capable of supporting life. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., have navigated Spirit to arrive during the evening of Jan. 3, 2004, in the Eastern time zone.

Spirit will land near the center of Gusev Crater, which may have once held a lake. Three weeks later, Opportunity will reach the Meridiani Planum, a region containing exposed deposits of a mineral that usually forms under watery conditions.

“We’ve cleared two of the big hurdles, building both spacecraft and launching them,” said JPL’s Peter Theisinger, project manager for the Mars Exploration Rover Project. “Now we’re coming up on a third, getting them safely onto the ground,” he said.

Since their launches on June 10 and July 7 respectively, each rover has been flying tucked inside a folded-up lander. The lander is wrapped in deflated airbags, cocooned within a protective aeroshell and attached to a cruise stage that provides solar panels, antennas and steering for the approximately seven month journey.

Spirit will cast off its cruise stage 15 minutes before hitting the top of the Martian atmosphere at 5,400 meters per second (12,000 miles per hour). Atmospheric friction during the next four minutes will heat part of the aeroshell to about 1,400 C (2,600 F) and slow the descent to about 430 meters per second (960 mph). Less than two minutes before landing, the spacecraft will open its parachute.

Twenty seconds later, it will jettison the bottom half of its aeroshell, exposing the lander. The top half of the shell, still riding the parachute, will lower the lander on a tether. In the final six seconds, airbags will inflate, retro rockets on the upper shell will fire, and the tether will be cut about 15 meters (49 feet) above the ground.

Several bounces and rolls could take the airbag-cushioned lander about a kilometer (0.6 mile) from where it initially lands. If any of the initial few bounces hits a big rock that’s too sharp, or if the spacecraft doesn’t complete each task at just the right point during the descent, the mission could be over. More than half of all the missions launched to Mars have failed.

JPL Director Dr. Charles Elachi said, “We have done everything we know that could be humanly done to ensure success. We have conducted more testing and external reviews for the Mars Exploration Rovers than for any previous interplanetary mission.”

Landing safely is the first step for three months of Mars exploration by each rover. Before rolling off its lander, each rover will spend a week or more unfolding itself, rising to full height, and scanning surroundings. Spirit and Opportunity each weigh about 17 times as much as the Sojourner rover of the 1997 Mars Pathfinder mission. They are big enough to roll right over obstacles nearly as tall as Sojourner.

“Think of Spirit and Opportunity as robotic field geologists,” said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the rovers’ identical sets of science instruments. “They look around with a stereo, color camera and with an infrared instrument that can classify rock types from a distance. They go to the rocks that seem most interesting. When they get to one, they reach out with a robotic arm that has a handful of tools, a microscope, two instruments for identifying what the rock is made of, and a grinder for getting to a fresh, unweathered surface inside the rock,” he said.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington. For information about the Mars Exploration Rover project on the Internet, visit:

http://space.mit.edu/HETE/

For Cornell University’s Web site about the science payload, visit:

http://athena.cornell.edu

Original Source: NASA/JPL News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Stardust Approaches Comet Wild 2

Image credit: NASA/JPL

NASA’s Stardust spacecraft took this photograph of its target, Comet Wild 2, while it was still 25 million kilometers away. The spacecraft is on track to reach the comet on January 2, 2004 when it will pass only 300 km away and capture particles of its tail to return to Earth for analysis – the best photographs are still to come. Mission planners will use these early images to help fine-tune Startdust’s trajectory to give it the closest possible approach to Wild 2’s centre.

Forty-nine days before its historic rendezvous with a comet, NASA’s Stardust spacecraft successfully photographed its quarry, comet Wild 2 (pronounced Vilt-2), from 25 million kilometers (15.5 million miles) away. The image, the first of many comet portraits it will take over the next four weeks, will aid Stardust?s navigators and scientists as they plot their final trajectory toward a Jan. 2, 2004 flyby and collection of samples from Wild 2.

?Christmas came early this year,? said Project Manager Tom Duxbury at NASA?s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. ?Our job is to aim a 5 meter (16 foot) long spacecraft at a 5.4 kilometer (3.3 mile) wide comet that is closing on it at six times the speed of a bullet. We plan to ?miss the comet? by all of 300 kilometers (188 miles), and all this will be happening 389 million kilometers (242 million miles) away from home. By finding the comet as early and as far away as we did, the complexity of our operations leading up to encounter just dropped drastically.?

The ball of dirty ice and rock, about as big as three Brooklyn Bridges laid end-to-end, was detected on November 13 by the spacecraft?s optical navigation camera on the very first attempt. The set of images was stored in Stardust?s onboard computer and downloaded the next day where mission navigator Dr. Shyam Bhaskaran processed them and noticed a white blob of light bisecting the base of a triangle made by three stars Stardust uses for deep space navigation.

?When I first looked at the picture I didn?t believe it,? said Bhaskaran. ?We were not expecting to observe the comet for at least another two weeks. But there it was, very close to where we thought it would be.?

The Wild 2 sighting was verified on November 18 using the second set of optical navigation images downloaded from Stardust. To make this detection, the spacecraft?s camera saw stars as dim as 11th visual magnitude, more than 1,500 times dimmer than a human can see on a clear night.

The early detection of Wild 2 provides mission navigators critical information on the comet?s position and orbital path. Future optical navigation images will allow them to do more fine-tuning. In turn, these new orbital plots will be used to plan the spacecraft?s approach trajectory correction maneuver. Stardust?s first such maneuver is planned for December 3.

Unlike other orbiting bodies, the paths of comets cannot be precisely predicted because their orbits about the Sun are not solely determined by gravity. The escape of gas, dust and rock from comets provides a “rocket effect” that causes them to stray from a predictable orbital path. The actual orbital path cannot be precisely determined from Earth-based telescopes because the comet is shrouded in a cloud of escaping gas and dust. What is seen from Earth is not the actual 5.4 kilometer (3.3 mile) wide body composed of rock and ice, but the cloud of debris and gas that envelops it.

?With these images we anticipate we will flyby comet Wild 2 at an altitude of 300 kilometers, give or take about 16 kilometers,? added Bhaskaran. ?Without them, we wouldn?t be able to safely get any closer to the comet than several thousand kilometers.?

Stardust will return to Earth in Jan. 2006 to make a soft landing at the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training Range. Its sample return capsule, holding microscopic particles of comet and interstellar dust, will be taken to the planetary material curatorial facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston, where the samples will be carefully stored and examined.

Stardust?s cometary and interstellar dust samples will help provide answers to fundamental questions about the origins of the solar system. More information on the Stardust mission is available at http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov .

Stardust, a part of NASA’s Discovery Program of low-cost, highly focused science missions, was built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics and Operations, Denver, Colo., and is managed by JPL for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The principal investigator is astronomy professor Donald E. Brownlee of the University of Washington in Seattle.

Original Source: NASA/JPL News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Atlas Launches Classified Payload

Image credit: ILS

An Atlas IIAS rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California this morning at 1004 UTC (5:04 am EST), carrying a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. Although no details about the payload were disclosed, industry experts believe it was probably contained two or three Naval Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS) spacecraft, which track and identify boats on the ocean. This was the 67th consecutive successful Atlas flight.

An Atlas IIAS rocket successfully lifted off today at 2:04 a.m. PST (10:04 GMT) from this West Coast launch site, releasing a national security payload into transfer orbit 74 minutes later.

The launch was provided by McLean, Va.-based International Launch Services (ILS), from Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 3E, for the U.S. Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Designated AC-164, this was the fourth Atlas mission this year, and the 67th consecutive successful Atlas flight. It also was ILS? fifth mission of 2003.

?ILS is honored to have a major role in enhancing our nation?s security, having now launched five NRO payloads,? said ILS President Mark Albrecht. ?ILS and Lockheed Martin share a long and valued partnership with the Office of Space Launch, and we take great pride in providing mission success.?

Albrecht added: ?Now we?re working toward NRO launches in 2004, 2005 and beyond, on Atlas III and Atlas V boosters from both Cape Canaveral, Fla., and from Vandenberg. With Atlas V capability at both coasts, we look forward to meeting NRO mission requirements well into the next decade.?

Lockheed Martin Corp. builds the Atlas family of rockets. Today?s vehicle, the Atlas IIAS, can lift 8,200 pounds to geosynchronous transfer orbit. The Atlas III can lift up to 9,920 pounds, and the current -production Atlas V is available in a range of configurations to lift payloads up to 19,000 pounds. Today?s mission was the final West Coast flight of the Atlas IIAS vehicle. Lockheed Martin soon will begin refurbishing Complex 3E, to accommodate Atlas V operations starting in 2005.

The Atlas V family is designed both for ILS commercial missions and to meet the U.S. Air Force requirements for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV). The Atlas V vehicle has flown three commercial missions, all successfully. The first U.S. government Atlas V mission is set for 2005 with the Wideband Gapfiller Satellite #2 for the Air Force.

ILS is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp. that markets and manages government and commercial missions on the Atlas rocket to customers worldwide. The company is headquartered near Washington, D.C.

The Atlas rockets and their Centaur upper stages are built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company in Denver, Colo.; Harlingen, Texas; and San Diego, Calif.

Original Source: ILS News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Chinese Moon Shot by 2020

According to a report by the Associated Press, the Chinese are planning to put humans on the Moon by 2020. If everything goes as planned, the Chinese will probably launch a probe to orbit the Moon in 2007, and land a spacecraft there in 2010. Since their first launch of a human in October 2003, China has been much more forthcoming about their spaceflight plans. Earlier this month China said that they will probably launch their next Shenzhou flight within two years, potentially carrying two humans into space.