NASA Invites Media to 'Rocket Day' for Space Launch System

Media are invited to learn about NASA’s deep space exploration plans and view hardware for the world’s most powerful rocket, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), at the agency’s Rocket Day, Wednesday, Oct. 11, at NASA locations in Mississippi and Louisiana.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2fywZK4
via IFTTT

Large Solar Storm Sparks Global Aurora and Doubles Radiation Levels on the Martian Surface

An unexpectedly strong blast from the Sun hit Mars this month, observed by NASA missions in orbit and on the surface.

"NASA's distributed set of science missions is in the right place to detect activity on the Sun and examine the effects of such solar events at Mars as never possible before," said MAVEN Program Scientist Elsayed Talaat, program scientist at NASA Headquarters, Washington, for NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, mission.

The solar event on Sept. 11, 2017 sparked a global aurora at Mars more than 25 times brighter than any previously seen by the MAVEN orbiter, which has been studying the Martian atmosphere's interaction with the solar wind since 2014.

It produced radiation levels on the surface more than double any previously measured by the Curiosity rover's Radiation Assessment Detector, or RAD, since that mission's landing in 2012. The high readings lasted more than two days.

Strangely, it occurred in conjunction with a spate of solar activity during what is usually a quiet period in the Sun's 11-year sunspot and storm-activity cycle. This event was big enough to be detected at Earth too, even though Earth was on the opposite side of the Sun from Mars.

"The current solar cycle has been an odd one, with less activity than usual during the peak, and now we have this large event as we're approaching solar minimum," said Sonal Jain of the University of Colorado Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, who is a member of MAVEN's Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph instrument team.

"This is exactly the type of event both missions were designed to study, and it's the biggest we've seen on the surface so far," said RAD Principal Investigator Don Hassler of the Southwest Research Institute's Boulder, Colorado, office. "It will improve our understanding of how such solar events affect the Martian environment, from the top of the atmosphere all the way down to the surface."

RAD monitored radiation levels inside the encapsulated spacecraft that carried Curiosity from Earth to Mars in 2011 and 2012 and has been steadily monitoring the radiation environment at Mars' surface for more than five years.

RAD findings strengthen understanding of radiation's impact on Mars habitability, a key objective of the Curiosity mission. NASA is also using RAD findings for planning the safety of human-crew missions to Mars. Highly energetic solar events can significantly increase the radiation that penetrates through the atmosphere to the Mars surface. The increased radiation also interacts with the atmosphere to produce additional, secondary particles, which need to be understood and shielded against to ensure the safety of future human explorers.

"If you were outdoors on a Mars walk and learned that an event like this was imminent, you would definitely want to take shelter, just as you would if you were on a space walk outside the International Space Station," Hassler said. "To protect our astronauts on Mars in the future, we need to continue to provide this type of space weather monitoring there."

The Sun is always emitting a continuous stream of charged particles, mainly electrons and protons. Occasionally, eruptions called coronal mass ejections occur, with higher density, energy and speed of the ejected particles. These events vary in strength. Strong ones cause dramatic aurora displays on Earth, and very strong ones can disrupt communications. Some coronal mass ejections, such as this month's event, are broad enough in extent to affect planets in quite different directions from the Sun.

Jain said, "When a solar storm hits the Martian atmosphere, it can trigger auroras that light up the whole planet in ultraviolet light. The recent one lit up Mars like a light bulb. An aurora on Mars can envelope the entire planet because Mars has no strong magnetic field like Earth's to concentrate the aurora near polar regions. The energetic particles from the Sun also can be absorbed by the upper atmosphere, increasing its temperature and causing it to swell up."

Analysis of the data is just beginning. "We expect to get a better understanding of how the process operates in the upper atmosphere of Mars today, and a better understanding of how storms like this may have stripped away much of the Martian atmosphere in the past," said MAVEN Principal Investigator Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado Boulder. The loss of most of Mars' original atmosphere to space is linked to the planet's change from wet to dry, long ago.

Besides the observations by instruments on MAVEN and Curiosity, effects of the Sept. 11, 2017 event were also detected by instruments on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and by the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the MAVEN mission for the principal investigator at the University of Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, manages the Curiosity mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. RAD is supported by NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, Washington, under JPL subcontract to Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, and by Germany's national space agency (DLR) under contract with Christian-Albrechts-Universitat, Kiel, Germany.

News Media Contact

Guy Webster

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-6278

guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Nancy Neal Jones

Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

301-286-0039

nancy.n.jones@nasa.gov

Jim Scott

University of Colorado Boulder

303-492-3114

jim.scott@colorado.edu

Deb Schmid

Southwest Reseach Institute, San Antonio

210-522-2254

deb.schmid@swri.org

Laurie Cantillo / Dwayne Brown

NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1077 / 202-358-1726

laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov / dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

2017-254

from News and Features http://ift.tt/2woZaSx
via IFTTT

NASA Opens Media Accreditation for November Space Station Cargo

Media accreditation is open for the launch of the eighth Orbital ATK cargo resupply flight to the International Space Station from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2fDimJ5
via IFTTT

NASA Glenn Tests Thruster Bound for Metal World

As NASA looks to explore deeper into our solar system, one of the key areas of interest is studying worlds that can help researchers better understand our solar system and the universe around us. One of the next destinations in this knowledge-gathering campaign is a rare world called Psyche, located in the asteroid belt.

Psyche is different from millions of other asteroids because it appears to have an exposed nickel-iron surface. Researchers at Arizona State University, Tempe, in partnership with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, believe the asteroid could actually be the leftover core of an early planet. And, since we can't directly explore any planet's core, including our own, Psyche offers a rare look into the violent history of our solar system.

"Psyche is a unique body because it is, by far, the largest metal asteroid out there; it's about the size of Massachusetts," said David Oh, the mission's lead project systems engineer at JPL. "By exploring Psyche, we'll learn about the formation of the planets, how planetary cores are formed and, just as important, we'll be exploring a new type of world. We've looked at worlds made of rock, ice and of gas, but we've never had an opportunity to look at a metal world, so this is brand new exploration in the classic style of NASA."

But getting to Psyche won't be easy. It requires a cutting-edge propulsion system with exceptional performance, which is also safe, reliable and cost-effective. That's why the mission team has turned to NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, which has been advancing solar electric propulsion (SEP) for decades.

SEP thrusters use inert gases, like xenon, which are then energized by the electric power generated from onboard solar arrays to provide gentle, non-stop thrust.

"For deep space missions, the type and amount of fuel required to propel a spacecraft is an important factor for mission planners," said Carol Tolbert, project manager for Psyche thruster testing at NASA Glenn. "A SEP system, like the one used for this mission, operates more efficiently than a conventional chemical propulsion system, which would be impractical for this type of mission."

The reduced fuel mass allows the mission to enter orbit around Psyche and provides additional space for all of the mission's scientific payload. Psyche's payload includes a multispectral imager, magnetometer, and gamma-ray spectrometer. These instruments will help the science team better understand the asteroid's origin, composition and history.

Additional benefits of SEP are flexibility and robustness in the flight plan, which allow the spacecraft to arrive at Psyche much faster and more efficiently than it could using conventional propulsion.

For this mission, the spacecraft, which will be built jointly by JPL and Space Systems Loral (SSL), will use the SPT-140 Hall effect thruster. Because Psyche is three times farther away from the Sun than Earth, flying there required a unique test of the low-power operation of the thruster in the very low pressures that will be encountered in space.

The mission team called upon NASA Glenn, and its space power and propulsion expertise, to put the mission's thruster through its paces at the center's Electric Propulsion Laboratory.

VIDEO

"This mission will be the first to use a Hall effect thruster system beyond lunar orbit, so the tests here at Glenn, which had never been conducted before, were needed to ensure the thruster could perform and operate as expected in the deep space environment," said Tolbert.

The facility at NASA Glenn has been a premier destination for electric propulsion and power system testing for over 40 years and features a number of space environment chambers, which simulate the vacuum and temperatures of space.

"This was very important to the mission because we want to test-like-we-fly and fly-like-we-test," said Oh. "Glenn has a world-class facility that allowed us to go to very low pressures to simulate the environment the spacecraft will operate in and better understand how our thrusters will perform around Psyche.

"At first glance, the results confirm our predictions regarding how the thruster will perform, and it looks like everything is working as expected. But, we will continue to refine our models by doing more analysis."

As the team works toward an anticipated August 2022 launch, they will use the data collected at NASA Glenn to update their thruster modeling and incorporate it into mission trajectories.

The scientific goals of the Psyche mission are to understand the building blocks of planet formation and explore firsthand a wholly new and unexplored type of world. The mission team seeks to determine whether Psyche is the core of an early planet, how old it is, whether it formed in similar ways to Earth's core, and what its surface is like. For more information about NASA's Psyche mission, visit:

http://ift.tt/2qYXBss

The Psyche Mission is being completed under NASA's Science Mission Directorate's Discovery Program, a series of lower-cost, highly focused robotic space missions that are exploring the solar system.

News Media Contact

DC Agle

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-9011

agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Jimi Russell

Glenn Research Center

216-433-2894

james.j.russell@nasa.gov

Laurie Cantillo / Dwayne Brown

NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1077 / 202-358-1726

laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov / dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

2017-253

from News and Features http://ift.tt/2xFykXI
via IFTTT

NASA Damage Map Aids Puerto Rico Hurricane Response

A NASA-produced map showing areas of eastern Puerto Rico that were likely damaged by Hurricane Maria has been provided to responding agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The hurricane, a Category 4 storm at landfall on Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, caused widespread damage and numerous casualties on the Caribbean island, an unincorporated U.S. territory with a population of about 3.4 million.

To assist in disaster response efforts, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech, both in Pasadena, California, obtained and used before-and-after interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) satellite imagery of areas of Eastern Puerto Rico to identify the areas that are likely damaged. The imagery -- acquired before the storm on March 25, 2017 and again one day after landfall on Sept. 21, 2017 -- is from the radar instruments on the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites operated by the European Space Agency. The resulting Damage Proxy Map shown here may be viewed and downloaded in full resolution at:

http://ift.tt/2xNYKIH

The full map data files may be downloaded at:

http://ift.tt/2fUPSYk

The views indicate the extent of likely damage caused by the hurricane, based on changes to the ground surface detected by radar. The color variations from yellow to red indicate increasingly more significant ground and building surface change. The map is used as guidance to identify potentially damaged areas and may be less reliable over vegetated and flooded areas. The map covers the area within the large red polygon in the figure, which is 105 by 60 miles (169 by 96 kilometers) in extent. The inset, denoted by the orange rectangle, highlights damage in and around the capital city of San Juan. Each pixel in the map measures about 98 feet (30 meters) across.

NASA delivered the map to responding agencies, including FEMA, on Sept. 22, 2017. FEMA combined the map with building infrastructure data to estimate a damage density map, which was sent to its Urban Search and Rescue teams in the field in Puerto Rico.

The radar data were processed by the Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team at JPL and Caltech. ARIA is a NASA-funded project that is building an automated system for demonstrating the ability to rapidly and reliably provide GPS and radar satellite data to support local, national and international hazard-monitoring and response communities. InSAR can "see" through clouds and is sensitive to changes in the roughness of the ground or building surfaces.

Using space-based radar imagery of disasters, ARIA data products can aid responders in making rapid assessments of the geographic region affected by a disaster, as well as detailed imaging of locations where damage occurred.

Preliminary validation of the Puerto Rico Hurricane Maria Damage Proxy Map was done by comparing it to anecdotal reports of damage. Sentinel-1 data were accessed through the Copernicus Open Access Hub. The image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA and analyzed by the NASA-JPL/Caltech ARIA team.

The ARIA team expects to produce another Damage Proxy Map for western Puerto Rico this week, following acquisition of additional Copernicus Sentinel satellite data.

This analysis was supported by the NASA Disasters Program, part of the Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate. The program works with international, regional and local disaster response agencies to produce critical information products using global environmental data from NASA's fleet of Earth science satellites and other airborne and space-based assets, including data from other international space agencies. Dedicated teams of Earth-observation disaster specialists at NASA centers mobilize to respond in real-time to a wide range of natural hazards and human-produced events.

For more information about ARIA, visit:

http://ift.tt/2y04CQa

News Media Contact

Alan Buis

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-0474

Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

2017-252

from News and Features http://ift.tt/2fUJxMe
via IFTTT

A Fresh Look at Older Data Yields a Surprise Near the Martian Equator

Scientists taking a new look at older data from NASA's longest-operating Mars orbiter have discovered evidence of significant hydration near the Martian equator -- a mysterious signature in a region of the Red Planet where planetary scientists figure ice shouldn't exist.

Jack Wilson, a post-doctoral researcher at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, led a team that reprocessed data collected from 2002 to 2009 by the neutron spectrometer instrument on NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft. In bringing the lower-resolution compositional data into sharper focus, the scientists spotted unexpectedly high amounts of hydrogen -- which at high latitudes is a sign of buried water ice -- around sections of the Martian equator.

An accessible supply of water ice near the equator would be of interest in planning astronaut exploration of Mars. The amount of delivered mass needed for human exploration could be greatly reduced by using Martian natural resources for a water supply and as raw material for producing hydrogen fuel.

By applying image-reconstruction techniques often used to reduce blurring and remove "noise" from medical or spacecraft imaging data, Wilson's team improved the spatial resolution of the data from around 320 miles to 180 miles (520 kilometers to 290 kilometers). "It was as if we'd cut the spacecraft's orbital altitude in half," Wilson said, "and it gave us a much better view of what's happening on the surface."

The neutron spectrometer can't directly detect water, but by measuring neutrons, it can help scientists calculate the abundance of hydrogen -- and infer the presence of water or other hydrogen-bearing substances. Mars Odyssey's first major discovery, in 2002, was abundant hydrogen just beneath the surface at high latitudes. In 2008, NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander confirmed that the hydrogen was in the form of water ice. But at lower latitudes on Mars, water ice is not thought to be thermodynamically stable at any depth. The traces of excess hydrogen that Odyssey's original data showed at lower latitudes were initially explained as hydrated minerals, which other spacecraft and instruments have since observed.

Wilson's team concentrated on those equatorial areas, particularly with a 600-mile (1,000-kilometer) stretch of loose, easily erodible material between the northern lowlands and southern highlands along the Medusae Fossae Formation. Radar-sounding scans of the area have suggested the presence of low-density volcanic deposits or water ice below the surface, "but if the detected hydrogen were buried ice within the top meter of the surface, there would be more than would fit into pore space in soil," Wilson said. The radar data came from both the Shallow Radar on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding on the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter and would be consistent with no subsurface water ice near the equator.

How water ice could be preserved there is a mystery. A leading theory suggests an ice and dust mixture from the polar areas could be cycled through the atmosphere when Mars' axial tilt was larger than it is today. But those conditions last occurred hundreds of thousands to millions of years ago. Water ice isn't expected to be stable at any depth in that area today, Wilson said, and any ice deposited there should be long gone. Additional protection might come from a cover of dust and a hardened "duricrust" that traps the humidity below the surface, but this is unlikely to prevent ice loss over timescales of the axial tilt cycles.

"Perhaps the signature could be explained in terms of extensive deposits of hydrated salts, but how these hydrated salts came to be in the formation is also difficult to explain," Wilson added. "So for now, the signature remains a mystery worthy of further study, and Mars continues to surprise us."

Wilson led the research while at Durham University in the U.K. His team - which includes members from NASA Ames Research Center, the Planetary Science Institute and the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology - published its findings this summer in the journal Icarus.

News Media Contact

Guy Webster

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-6278

guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Michael Buckley

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.

240-228-7536

michael.buckley@jhuapl.edu

Laurie Cantillo / Dwayne Brown

NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1077 / 202-358-1726

laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov / dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

2017-251

from News and Features http://ift.tt/2wYM8PN
via IFTTT

Robot Spelunkers Go for a Dip

NASA has changed the perspective of science, building satellites to study Earth's surface. Deep below that surface, where it's harder for satellites to see, is another story -- but robotic technology might change that.

NASA roboticists are exploring moulins, places where water has punched through thousands of feet of ice to form a waterfall through a glacier.They hope to match these watery labyrinths to features that can be surveyed by satellite, such as openings in the glacier's surface. This past July, two researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, traveled by plane to Alaska's Matanuska Glacier. There, they tested robotic mapping techniques while exploring these icy labyrinths.

Moulins are too small and dangerous for humans to enter, so the best way to explore them is with robotic submersibles. NASA has been interested in these flooded structures in the past because they serve as a glacier's "plumbing," carrying meltwater throughout the ice and controlling how fast a glacier moves.

In the distant future, understanding ice formations like moulins might help with deep space exploration. They could provide entrances into icy worlds like Jupiter's moon Europa.

"To get under the surface of Europa or [Saturn's moon] Enceladus, we need to find the quickest way in," said Andy Klesh of JPL, one of the researchers who ventured out to Matanuska Glacier. "Can we map and navigate these subglacial lakes with robots? Are there accessible passageways hidden just beneath the surface? This first foray to Alaska tested the technology to begin answering these questions."

Alaska Adventure

Klesh was joined by John Leichty, another JPL roboticist, and a guide named Keeton Kroon. They flew in a two-seater plane and backpacked to their field sites over the course of six days.

The field site was as remote as it was visually stunning, Klesh said. They were completely alone, save for a couple of bears they encountered and the occasional passing plane. At one point they came across an "ice fence" -- a set of 7-foot-tall ice pillars that included a heart-shaped hole. One of them photographed it; the next day, they passed by and the shape had completely melted away.

"The terrain changes daily," Klesh said. "Because of the way everything melts out there, you're the first -- and maybe the last -- to see it."

At each moulin, streams of blue water emptied into pools on the surface. This liquid water is warmer than the ice, melting into it and carving different formations. Some of it melts all the way into the glacier, creating a network of underwater passages.

Robots and DIY Probes

The team lowered a robotic submersible into these moulins, which descended to 150 feet (46 meters) at one point. Klesh said they could have descended farther, but the water became too cloudy to keep going. Underwater cameras recorded their passage; in the future, they plan to use acoustic sensors to map out surroundings when it becomes too dirty to see.

Cameras and laser scans allowed them to create 3-D maps of these glacier caves.

"The idea is to identify and map out these underwater channels," Leichty said. "We want to know if they're correlated to surface features that we can identify using satellite or overhead images."

Understanding the relationship between the worlds above and below will let scientists guess where to lower probes to gather the best science.

Klesh and Leicty's recent expedition relied on a commercial grade submersible and a "homemade" glacial probe. The latter was built using off-the-shelf and 3-D printed parts. They did all their own wiring and programming.

CubeSat Know-How

They said their experience with CubeSats -- tiny, modular spacecraft that rely heavily on commercial parts -- helped them create this probe. Both Klesh and Leichty are involved with another icy, underwater project called BRUIE, or the Bouyant Rover for Under-Ice Exploration. BRUIE has been tested under Alaskan ice in the past, and prepared them for the challenges of working on the Matanuska Glacier. Pro tip: bring small handpicks to chip out ice that freezes in your robot's bolts and prevents you from tightening them.

"We're combining our experience with BRUIE and CubeSats and bringing that into a new area of exploration," Klesh said. "CubeSats rely on the miniaturization of electronics to explore low-cost platforms. That allows us to explore areas that would otherwise be too risky or costly to access."

This trial run of moulin mapping was just a start. Klesh and Leichty are roboticists, so their focus is developing the right technology. They want to partner with scientists for a more detailed exploration of moulins next summer.

News Media Contact

Andrew Good

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-2433

andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

2017-250

from News and Features http://ift.tt/2fqZRDN
via IFTTT

South Carolina Students to Speak with NASA Astronaut on Space Station

Students at Laing Middle School in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, near Charleston, will speak with a NASA astronaut living, working and doing research aboard the International Space Station at 11:30 a.m. EDT Monday, Oct. 2.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2yaDtKs
via IFTTT

Briefing, NASA Television Coverage Set for Upcoming US Spacewalks

Three American astronauts aboard the International Space Station will embark on a trio of spacewalks in October to perform station maintenance. NASA Television and the agency’s website will provide live coverage of the spacewalks, as well as a briefing to discuss the work to be performed.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2fChK6q
via IFTTT

Dawn Mission Celebrates 10 Years in Space

Ten years ago, NASA's Dawn spacecraft set sail for the two most massive bodies in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter: giant asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres. The mission was designed to deliver new knowledge about these small but intricate worlds, which hold clues to the formation of planets in our solar system.

"Our interplanetary spaceship has exceeded all expectations in the last decade, delivering amazing insights about these two fascinating bodies," said Chris Russell, principal investigator of the Dawn mission, based at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Since its launch on Sept. 27, 2007, Dawn has achieved numerous technical and scientific feats while traveling 4 billion miles (6 billion kilometers). It is the only spacecraft to orbit two extraterrestrial solar system targets. It is also the only spacecraft to orbit a dwarf planet, a milestone it achieved when in entered orbit around Ceres on March 6, 2015. The spacecraft's ion propulsion system enabled Dawn to study each of these worlds from a variety of vantage points and altitudes, creating an impressive scrapbook of 88,000 photos. Additionally, Dawn's suite of instruments enabled it to take a variety of other measurements of Vesta and Ceres, revealing the contrasting compositions and internal structures of these two bodies.

VIDEO

Vesta Highlights

Scientists learned a great deal about Vesta's geological features and composition during Dawn's 14 months of exploration there. A notable discovery was that Rheasilvia, a giant basin in Vesta's southern hemisphere, was even deeper and wider than scientists expected based on telescopic observations from Earth. It spans more than 310 miles (500 kilometers) and pierces about 12 miles (19 kilometers) into Vesta. The center of the crater also hosts a mountain twice the height of Mt. Everest -- the tallest feature seen in Dawn's 1,298 orbits of Vesta.

The massive punch into Vesta that carved out this crater happened about 1 billion years ago and caused huge amounts of material to rain down on the surface. The net result is that the surface of the southern hemisphere of Vesta is younger than the northern hemisphere, which retains a hefty record of craters. The Rheasilvia impact also created dozens of gorges circling Vesta's equator. Canyons there, some of which formed from an earlier impact, measure up to 290 miles (465 kilometers) in length.

VIDEO

Ceres Highlights

One of Dawn's biggest revelations at Ceres is the extremely bright, salty material in Occator Crater that gleams amid an otherwise dark area. What appeared to be a single white blob at a distance turned out to be a smattering of many bright areas called faculae. The central bright area, Cerealia Facula, has a dome at its center with radial fractures across it that appears reddish in enhanced color images. This "bright spot" suggests Ceres was geologically active in the very recent past, when briny water rose to the surface and deposited salts. Just to the east are the Vinalia Faculae, a constellation of less-bright spots distributed along fractures that also intrigue scientists. Ceres hosts more than 300 small bright areas, with some thought to host ice at northern latitudes.

Another huge surprise at Ceres was Ahuna Mons, which scientists believe formed as a cryovolcano, a volcano that erupted with salty water in the past. This "lonely mountain," 3 miles (5 kilometers) high on its steepest side, is unlike anything else on Ceres and remains a thriving research topic. Though both Ahuna Mons and Occator appear dormant, they suggest that liquid water flowed once beneath the surface of Ceres, and may even still be there today, if it is enriched in salts that would lower its freezing point.

Dawn Science Continues

"The science team is still actively exploring the troves of data that Dawn has delivered so far, comparing these two fossils of the early solar system," said Carol Raymond, Dawn deputy principal investigator, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

Since March 2015, Dawn has orbited Ceres 1,595 times. It remains healthy, currently in a 30-day elliptical orbit collecting data on cosmic rays in the vicinity of Ceres.

"This continues to be a mission for everyone who yearns for new knowledge, everyone who is curious about the cosmos, and everyone who is exhilarated by bold adventures into the unknown," said Marc Rayman, mission director and chief engineer, based at JPL.

Dawn's mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK, Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the Italian Space Agency and the Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team. For a complete list of acknowledgments, see http://ift.tt/1ALN8zu.

For more information about the Dawn mission, visit:

http://ift.tt/2oWMIsp

News Media Contact

Elizabeth Landau

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-6425

elizabeth.landau@jpl.nasa.gov

2017-249

from News and Features http://ift.tt/2hyIiTa
via IFTTT

Vice President Pence Visits NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

Vice President Mike Pence offered his thanks Monday to employees working on NASA’s human spaceflight programs during a tour of the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2wPOhgW
via IFTTT

Vice President Pence to Visit NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center for Update on 21st Century Space Exploration

Vice President Mike Pence will visit NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, on Monday, Sept. 25.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2xBGZfQ
via IFTTT

NASA Tech Aids Search Following Mexico Quake

Disaster relief workers on the ground in Mexico City were responding to this week's 7.1-magnitude earthquake by using a suitcase-sized radar instrument capable of detecting human heartbeats under rubble.

This technology was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, and the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate in Washington. FINDER, which stands for Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response, was developed as a collaboration between the two agencies.

Since 2015, two private companies have acquired licenses for the technology. They have since taken it to disaster zones, training relief workers to use it and manufacturing new units.

"Our hearts go out to the people of Mexico," said Neil Chamberlain, task manager for FINDER at JPL. "We're glad to know our technology is being used to make a difference there."

As of Thursday, Sept. 21, one of the licensees, a company called SpecOps Group Inc., was in Mexico City and actively searching for survivors. President and CEO Adrian Garulay said members of the company were escorted to the disaster site and connected with rescue workers.

A second company, R4 Incorporated, sold FINDER units to the fire department of Quito, Ecuador, after responding to an earthquake there last year. David Lewis, president and CEO of R4, said the Quito fire department had dispatched its units to Mexico City to aid in the search for victims.

Lewis was in Puerto Rico earlier this week using FINDER to search for survivors of Hurricane Maria. Hurricanes are a relatively new use case for the technology. While radar can't search through water, it's useful for detecting heartbeats through rooftops. People trapped in flooded buildings often run to the upper floors. He said they didn't find anyone in the day or so that they used FINDER.

"This is one of those instances when we have developed a technology we hope will never be needed," said DHS Under Secretary (acting) for Science and Technology William N. Bryan. "But it's good to know it's out there when we unfortunately have to use it."

FINDER sends a low-powered microwave signal -- about one-thousandth of a cell phone's output -- through rubble. It looks for changes in the reflections of those signals coming back from tiny motions caused by victims' breathing and heartbeats. In tests, FINDER has detected heartbeats through 30 feet of rubble or 20 feet of solid concrete. The technology evolved from JPL's efforts to develop low-cost, small spacecraft radios, using signal processing developed to measure small changes in spacecraft motion.

Both companies work with the direction of local governments when they travel to disaster sites. FINDER is used alongside a variety of other techniques, including trained dogs, acoustic sensing devices and thermal imagers. All these techniques are usually deployed together.

When FINDER was deployed to Nepal after a major earthquake in 2015, it helped find four men trapped under a collapsed textile factory. Lewis said it's hard to confirm exactly how many lives the technology has saved in total, since he doesn't have data from relief teams that have purchased their own units, and it's often used in conjunction with other methods.

News Media Contact

Andrew Good

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-2433

andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

John Verrico

DHS Science and Technology Directorate

202-254-2385

john.verrico@hq.dhs.gov

2017-248

from News and Features http://ift.tt/2xYzznL
via IFTTT

Legacy of Herschel Space Observatory

To celebrate the legacy of ESA's Herschel Space Observatory, which had significant NASA contributions, the European Space Agency (ESA) has designated this week as Herschel Week, highlighting some of the mission's accomplishments.

Herschel is the largest observatory ever launched that explored the universe in infrared wavelengths, a spectrum of light that is invisible to the naked eye. Data from its nearly four years of observations, from 2009 to 2013, have helped scientists explore many topics of high interest, including the following:

1. How do stars form? This question speaks to the core of our existence, as all the atoms that form the planets of our solar system -- and life on Earth itself -- largely originated from previous generations of stars. Herschel has provided an unprecedented glimpse into portions of our galaxy where stars form. Scientists have made big strides in understanding the processes that lead to the formation of stars in our galaxy.

http://ift.tt/2jDabh5

2. Herschel has tracked the presence of water in the Milky Way. The observatory found water in star-forming molecular clouds, detected it for the first time in the seeds of future stars and planets, and identified the delivery of water from interplanetary debris to planets in our solar system.

http://ift.tt/2xk9j5S

3. How do galaxies evolve? Herschel has helped answer this question.

http://ift.tt/2wGIm8Q

Read more about the science data, discoveries and people behind Herschel:

http://ift.tt/2fnpARv

Additional links about Herschel:

http://ift.tt/VbRqwT

http://ift.tt/2fna7ke

http://ift.tt/ZME2OE

Herschel is a European Space Agency mission, with science instruments provided by consortia of European institutes and with important participation by NASA. While the observatory stopped making science observations in April 2013, after running out of liquid coolant as expected, scientists continue to analyze its data. NASA's Herschel Project Office is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. JPL contributed mission-enabling technology for two of Herschel's three science instruments. The NASA Herschel Science Center, part of IPAC, supports the U.S. astronomical community. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

News Media Contact

Elizabeth Landau

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-6425

elizabeth.landau@jpl.nasa.gov

2017-247

from News and Features http://ift.tt/2wGZErd
via IFTTT

What Looks Good on Paper May Look Good In Space

An ancient art form has taken on new shape at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Origami, the Japanese tradition of paper-folding, has inspired a number of unique spacecraft designs here. It's little wonder that it fascinates NASA engineers: origami can seem deceptively simple, hiding complex math within its creases.

Besides aesthetic beauty, it addresses a persistent problem faced by JPL engineers: how do you pack the greatest amount of spacecraft into the smallest volume possible?

VIDEO

One answer might be found in the Starshade, an immense, folding iris that has been proposed as a way to block light from distant stars. It would unfurl to a diameter of about 85 feet (26 meters) in space, about the size of a standard baseball diamond.

Dampening the brightness of a star's light would extend the capability of a space telescope to detect orbiting exoplanets. One future project being consideredfor possible use with Starshadeis the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, which will employ a special coronagraph to image larger planetsaround other stars.If a Starshade is flown, combining it with WFIRSTwould allow it to detect smaller planets, too.

Something that big is more at risk of micrometeorite strikes; any punctures could mean light getting through and obscuring a telescope's vision. That's why JPL turned to an origami-inspired folding pattern, said Manan Arya, a technologist working on Starshade.

"We use multiple layers of material to block starlight, separated by some gaps so that, if we do get hit, there's a good chance that there won't be a line-of-sight puncture," Arya said.

The key was developing algorithms that allow the Starshade to fold smoothly, predictably and repeatedly.

"A huge part of my job is looking at something on paper and asking, 'Can we fly this?'" Arya said. He could be considered Starshade's "origamist in chief." His PhD thesis looked at the use of origami in space superstructures.

A colorful history of space folding inspired him. That includes solar arrays, like those on the International Space Station; experimental wings designed for the space shuttle program in the 1980s; even Echo 1, a 10-story-tall, Earth-orbiting balloon that had to be packed into a 26-inch-diameter (66 centimeters), spherical payload canister before launching.

"Once I realized this is how you fold spacecraft structures, I became interested in origami," Arya said. "I realized I was good at it and enjoyed it. Now I fold constantly."

He's not alone. Robert Salazar, a JPL intern who helped design the Starshade folding pattern, now works on an experimental concept called Transformers for Lunar Extreme Environments. JPL senior research scientist Adrian Stoica leads the project, which would use unfolding, reflective mirrors to bounce the Sun's rays into deep craters on Earth's moon. Once deployed, this solar energy could melt water ice or power machinery.

Salazar tests folding designs and materials in a work area littered with scraps, mostly from paper. He also folds Kapton, a tinsel-like material used as spacecraft insulation, and a special polyethylene fabric that doesn't form permanent creases.

"With most origami, the magic comes from the folding," Salazar said. "You can't design purely from geometry. You need to know the qualities of the material to understand how it will fold."

Salazar has been making origami for 17 years. As a kid, he was inspired by the children's book "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes." His own original designs include paper animals. In fact, he folds paper versions of endangered species and donates them to benefit wildlife conservancies.

He said the use of origami in engineering is relatively new and is spurring the publication of technical papers on folding patterns.

"There are so many patterns to still be explored," Salazar said. "Most designs are for shapes that fold flat. Non-flat structures, like spheres or paraboloids, largely haven't been done."

Starshade and the Transformers project are still in their early stages. But Arya points out that we could see space origami very soon. CubeSats are one promising application: these miniaturized satellites are the size of a briefcase, and NASA will launch several key missions using these modular spacecraft in coming years.

Because they require so little space, mass and cost, they're easier to launch. But CubeSats are limited in what they can do without folding structures, which can pack antennas and other equipment into them.

"That's an area where I see origami having an increasing role," Arya said.

Another is robotics. A JPL robot called PUFFER was inspired by origami. Its collapsible body is made from a folding circuit board embedded with fabric. When in use, it pops-up and can climb over rocks or squeeze down under ledges.

In July, NASA placed

an open call

for origami designs to be used in radiation shielding -- another sign that the art form has much to offer the future of space exploration.

News Media Contact

Andrew Good

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-2433

andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

2017-246

from News and Features http://ift.tt/2hmaiNe
via IFTTT

NASA-Produced Damage Maps May Aid Mexico Quake Response

A NASA-produced map of areas likely damaged by the Sept. 19 magnitude 7.1 Raboso earthquake near Mexico City has been provided to Mexican authorities to help responders and groups supporting the response efforts. The quake, which struck 75 miles (120 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City, caused significant loss of life and property damage.

To assist in the disaster response efforts, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech, both in Pasadena, California, obtained and used before-and-after interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) satellite imagery of areas of Central Mexico, including Mexico City, affected by the quake, to identify areas of damage and produce what is known as a Damage Proxy Map. The imagery -- acquired before the quake on Sept. 8, and again on Sept. 20, 2017, just 6-1/2 hours after the earthquake -- is from the radar instrument on the Copernicus Sentinel-1A and Sentinel 1-B satellites operated by the European Space Agency. The map may be viewed and downloaded in full resolution at:

http://ift.tt/2ytxCgk

and

http://ift.tt/2xrFxMB

The views indicate the extent of damage caused by the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks, based on changes to the ground surface detected by radar. The color variations from yellow to red indicate increasingly more significant ground and building surface change. The map should be used as guidance to identify damaged areas, and may be less reliable over vegetated areas. It covers an area of 109 by 106 miles (175 by 170 kilometers). Each pixel measures about 33 yards (30 meters) across.

The radar data were processed by the Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team at JPL and Caltech. ARIA is a NASA-funded project that is building an automated system for demonstrating the ability to rapidly and reliably provide GPS and satellite data to support local, national and international hazard-monitoring and response communities.

The NASA Disasters Program, part of the Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate, works with international, regional and local disaster response agencies to produce critical information products using global environmental data from NASA's fleet of Earth science satellites and other airborne and space-based assets. Dedicated teams of Earth-observation disaster specialists at NASA centers mobilize to respond in real-time to a wide range of natural hazards and human-produced events.

Using space-based imagery of disasters, ARIA data products can provide rapid assessments of the geographic region affected by a disaster, as well as detailed imaging of locations where damage occurred. Radar can "see" through clouds day and night and measure centimeter-level ground movements.

Preliminary validation of the Raboso quake Damage Proxy Map was done by comparing it to a crowd-sourced Google Map. Sentinel-1 data were accessed through the Copernicus Open Access Hub. The image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA and analyzed by the NASA-JPL/Caltech ARIA team.

The Sept. 19 Mexico quake occurred just 12 days after a separate magnitude 8.1 earthquake struck Mexico's southern Pacific coast, also resulting in significant loss of life and property damage. The JPL/Caltech team had previously produced and made available a similar Damage Proxy Map for the Sept. 7 quake, along with other supporting products using satellite radar data.

For more information about ARIA, visit:

http://ift.tt/175jR5j

News Media Contact

Alan Buis

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-0474

Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

2017-245

from News and Features http://ift.tt/2xU3aP7
via IFTTT

Students at National Air and Space Museum to Speak with Space Station Astronaut

Students at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington will speak with a NASA astronaut living, working and doing research aboard the International Space Station at 12:25 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Sept. 27, as part of a “STEM in 30” broadcast.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2xUdK90
via IFTTT

Media Invited to View NASA Spacecraft That Will Touch Our Sun

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will be humanity’s first-ever mission to explore the Sun’s outer atmosphere. Media are invited to see the spacecraft and learn about the mission from noon to 2 p.m. EDT Monday, Sept. 25, at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, where the probe is being built.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2fB9UHb
via IFTTT

Wind, Warm Water Revved Up Melting Antarctic Glaciers

A NASA study has located the Antarctic glaciers that accelerated the fastest between 2008 and 2014 and finds that the most likely cause of their speedup is an observed influx of warm water into the bay where they're located.

The water was only 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit (0.5 to 1 degree Celsius) warmer than usual water temperatures in the area, but it increased the glaciers' flow speeds by up to 25 percent and multiplied the rate of glacial ice loss by three to five times -- from 7 to 10 feet of thinning per year (2 to 3 meters) up to 33 feet per year (10 meters).

Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, found that the warmer water was driven into the area by winds associated with two global climate patterns: La Niña and the less-known Southern Annular Mode, which involves a change in location of the belt of winds that encircles Antarctica. The glaciers' acceleration lasted from mid-2008 to 2012. After that, they slowed down but have continued to flow faster than they did before the warm water arrived.

The study is published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

The four glaciers are in Marguerite Bay on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula. Before 2008, their flow rates and rates of thinning (a measure of ice loss) had been stable for almost two decades -- since the Wordie Ice Shelf in front of the glaciers collapsed in about 1989. The collapse broke off almost all of the floating portions of the glaciers, leaving the parts that are grounded on bedrock.

"Grounded ice is a major concern for sea level rise, because it hasn't contributed to sea level yet," said the new study's lead author, Catherine Walker of JPL. "Floating ice has already made its contribution to the sea level."

After two decades of relative stability, the magnitude of the glaciers' acceleration was unexpected. Walker and coauthor Alex Gardner of JPL discovered the change by examining new maps of glacial velocities for all Antarctic glaciers, created this year by Gardner and colleagues. The maps were developed by analyzing changes in Landsat satellite images from year to year. Previous data sets have either given a one-year "snapshot" of velocities, focused on a different location, or averaged rates of change over much larger areas of Antarctica, obscuring velocity changes over time and the behavior of individual glaciers. "I don't think anyone could have seen this before these new maps were developed," Walker said.

To find out what caused the speedup, Walker and Gardner checked air temperatures over the bay and saw that, though they had generally warmed over past decades, they hadn't spiked markedly in 2008 to 2012.

Water temperatures were a different story. A long-term data set from the nearby U.S. Antarctic Program's Palmer Station showed that warmer water first appeared in the bay in 2008, peaked in 2009, and stayed there almost nonstop through 2011. Using an analysis of winds in the area from the U.S. ECCO (Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean) project, Walker and Gardner showed that northwesterly winds allowed this warmer water to well up from the deep ocean onto the continental shelf in front of Marguerite Bay. Currents then carried the warm water into the bay and up to the fronts of the glaciers.

While the warm water was in the bay, there was a moderately strong La Niña event, and the belt of winds circling Antarctica was closer to the continent rather than farther north -- a condition known as the positive phase of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM). The combination of these two climate patterns was responsible for the northwesterly winds along the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula.

The speed at which the Marguerite Bay glaciers responded to a relatively small increase in ocean temperature was startling, Walker said. "We detected the warmest water first in January 2009, and by November the glaciers were already losing ice at a rate of eight meters [25 feet] per year in thickness."

Walker noted that while these glaciers accelerated during a La Niña event, the nearby Pine Island Glacier, one of West Antarctica's fastest-moving glaciers, melts faster during El Niños -- the opposite climate pattern. She said, "This alternating response to global atmospheric patterns underscores the need to improve our understanding of the links between global climate and changes in the polar oceans."

News Media Contact

Alan Buis

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-0474

Alan.Buis@jpl.nasa.gov

Written by Carol Rasmussen

NASA's Earth Science News Team

2017-244

from News and Features http://ift.tt/2wEvrEl
via IFTTT

NASA Awards Contract for Architectural, Engineering Support Services

NASA selected AECOM Technical Services, Inc. of San Francisco to provide architectural and engineering services to the Facilities Engineering branch at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2x8CNUe
via IFTTT

NASA Awards Contract for Ground Processing of Spaceflight Cargo

NASA has awarded a contract to Leidos Innovations Corporation in Houston to provide pressurized cargo packing and unpacking for the International Space Station Program.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2x4uw1H
via IFTTT

NASA's Cassini Spacecraft Ends Its Historic Exploration of Saturn

A thrilling epoch in the exploration of our solar system came to a close today, as NASA's Cassini spacecraft made a fateful plunge into the atmosphere of Saturn, ending its 13-year tour of the ringed planet.

"This is the final chapter of an amazing mission, but it's also a new beginning," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Cassini's discovery of ocean worlds at Titan and Enceladus changed everything, shaking our views to the core about surprising places to search for potential life beyond Earth."

Telemetry received during the plunge indicates that, as expected, Cassini entered Saturn's atmosphere with its thrusters firing to maintain stability, as it sent back a unique final set of science observations. Loss of contact with the Cassini spacecraft occurred at 4:55 a.m. PDT (7:55 a.m. EDT), with the signal received by NASA's Deep Space Network antenna complex in Canberra, Australia.

"It's a bittersweet, but fond, farewell to a mission that leaves behind an incredible wealth of discoveries that have changed our view of Saturn and our solar system, and will continue to shape future missions and research," said Michael Watkins, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which manages the Cassini mission for the agency. JPL also designed, developed and assembled the spacecraft.

Cassini's plunge brings to a close a series of 22 weekly "Grand Finale" dives between Saturn and its rings, a feat never before attempted by any spacecraft.

"The Cassini operations team did an absolutely stellar job guiding the spacecraft to its noble end," said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at JPL. "From designing the trajectory seven years ago, to navigating through the 22 nail-biting plunges between Saturn and its rings, this is a crack shot group of scientists and engineers that scripted a fitting end to a great mission. What a way to go. Truly a blaze of glory."

As planned, data from eight of Cassini's science instruments was beamed back to Earth. Mission scientists will examine the spacecraft's final observations in the coming weeks for new insights about Saturn, including hints about the planet's formation and evolution, and processes occurring in its atmosphere.

"Things never will be quite the same for those of us on the Cassini team now that the spacecraft is no longer flying," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at JPL. "But, we take comfort knowing that every time we look up at Saturn in the night sky, part of Cassini will be there, too."

Cassini launched in 1997 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and arrived at Saturn in 2004. NASA extended its mission twice - first for two years, and then for seven more. The second mission extension provided dozens of flybys of the planet's icy moons, using the spacecraft's remaining rocket propellant along the way. Cassini finished its tour of the Saturn system with its Grand Finale, capped by Friday's intentional plunge into the planet to ensure Saturn's moons - particularly Enceladus, with its subsurface ocean and signs of hydrothermal activity - remain pristine for future exploration.

While the Cassini spacecraft is gone, its enormous collection of data about Saturn - the giant planet, its magnetosphere, rings and moons - will continue to yield new discoveries for decades to come.

"Cassini may be gone, but its scientific bounty will keep us occupied for many years," Spilker said. "We've only scratched the surface of what we can learn from the mountain of data it has sent back over its lifetime."

An online toolkit with information and resources for Cassini's Grand Finale is available at:

http://ift.tt/2nBhQsZ

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

News Media Contact

Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo

NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077

dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov

Preston Dyches

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-5011

preston.dyches@jpl.nasa.gov

2017-243

from News and Features http://ift.tt/2ybCdU0
via IFTTT

NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft Ends Its Historic Exploration of Saturn

A thrilling epoch in the exploration of our solar system came to a close today, as NASA's Cassini spacecraft made a fateful plunge into the atmosphere of Saturn, ending its 13-year tour of the ringed planet.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2x3lOAN
via IFTTT

GRACE Mission Making Plans for Final Science Data Collection

Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Mission Status Report

With one of its twin satellites almost out of fuel after more than 15 years of chasing each other around our planet to measure Earth's ever-changing gravity field, the operations team for the U.S./German Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission is making plans for an anticipated final science collection.

On Sept. 3, one of 20 battery cells aboard the GRACE-2 satellite stopped operating due to an age-related issue. It was the eighth battery cell loss on GRACE-2 since the twin satellites that compose the GRACE mission launched in March 2002 on a mission designed to last five years. The following day, contact was lost with GRACE-2.

On Sept. 8, following numerous attempts, the GRACE mission operations team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California; Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR, the German Aerospace Center) in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany; and the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) in Potsdam, Germany, uplinked commands to GRACE-2 to bypass the satellite's flight software system. The procedure restored communications with the spacecraft, allowing the team to regain control. Subsequent analyses revealed that the battery cell lost on Sept. 3 had recovered its full voltage, and that GRACE-2 had essentially hibernated during the period of lost contact, consuming no fuel. Following an assessment of the satellite's overall health, the team has determined that GRACE's dual satellite science mission can continue.

The team has uplinked commands to GRACE-2 to place it in a passive state that will allow it to maintain its current level of fuel. Operational procedures have begun that will extend the GRACE mission to its next science operations phase, which runs from mid-October to early November. During that time, GRACE-2 will be in full Sun, so it will not need to use its batteries.

The team expects the October/November science data collection to be the mission's last before GRACE-2 runs out of fuel. The additional monthly gravity map produced will help further extend GRACE's data record closer to the launch of GRACE's successor mission, GRACE-Follow-On, scheduled for early 2018.

As directed by the mission's Joint Steering Group, final decommissioning for both GRACE-1 and GRACE-2 will begin once the dual satellite science phase concludes.

GRACE tracks the movement of water around our planet caused by Earth's changing seasons, weather and climate processes, and human activities. The mission has mapped Earth's ever-changing gravity field in unprecedented detail, showing how water, ice and solid Earth material move on or near Earth's surface. GRACE operates by sensing minute changes in gravitational pull caused by local changes in Earth's mass. To observe these changes, GRACE uses a microwave ranging system that measures micron-scale variations in the 137-mile (220-kilometer) distance between the spacecraft, along with GPS tracking, star trackers for attitude information and an accelerometer to account for non-gravitational effects such as atmospheric drag. From these data collected over Earth's surface, scientists can infer Earth's gravity field.

GRACE's monthly maps of regional variations in gravity have given scientists new insights into Earth system processes. Among its many innovations, GRACE has been used to monitor the loss of ice from Earth's ice sheets, improve understanding of the processes responsible for sea level rise and ocean circulation, provide insights into where aquifers may be shrinking or where dry soils are contributing to drought, and monitor changes in the solid Earth.

GRACE is a joint NASA/DLR mission led by the principal investigator at the University of Texas at Austin and co-principal investigator at GFZ. GRACE ground segment operations are co-funded by GFZ, DLR and the European Space Agency. JPL manages GRACE for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information on GRACE, visit:

http://ift.tt/Z75Iyg

http://ift.tt/1ens0Hf

News Media Contact

Alan Buis

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California

818-354-0474

Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

2017-242

from News and Features http://ift.tt/2x5mw2i
via IFTTT

Minnesota Students to Speak with NASA Astronaut on International Space Station

Less than a week after arriving on the International Space Station, Expedition 53 Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei will speak with students from the Pine River-Backus Schools in Pine River, Minnesota.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2fluYkH
via IFTTT

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Climbing Toward Ridge Top

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has begun the steep ascent of an iron-oxide-bearing ridge that's grabbed scientists' attention since before the car-sized rover's 2012 landing.

"We're on the climb now, driving up a route where we can access the layers we've studied from below," said Abigail Fraeman, a Curiosity science-team member at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"Vera Rubin Ridge" stands prominently on the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp, resisting erosion better than the less-steep portions of the mountain below and above it. The ridge, also called "Hematite Ridge," was informally named earlier this year in honor of pioneering astrophysicist Vera Rubin.

"As we skirted around the base of the ridge this summer, we had the opportunity to observe the large vertical exposure of rock layers that make up the bottom part of the ridge," said Fraeman, who organized the rover's ridge campaign. "But even though steep cliffs are great for exposing the stratifications, they're not so good for driving up."

The ascent to the top of the ridge from a transition in rock-layer appearance at the bottom of it will gain about 213 feet (65 meters) of elevation -- about 20 stories. The climb requires a series of drives totaling a little more than a third of a mile (570 meters). Before starting this ascent in early September, Curiosity had gained a total of about 980 feet (about 300 meters) in elevation in drives totaling 10.76 miles (17.32 kilometers) from its landing site to the base of the ridge.

Curiosity's telephoto observations of the ridge from just beneath it show finer layering, with extensive bright veins of varying widths cutting through the layers.

"Now we'll have a chance to examine the layers up close as the rover climbs," Fraeman said.

Curiosity Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada of JPL said, "Using data from orbiters and our own approach imaging, the team has chosen places to pause for more extensive studies on the way up, such as where the rock layers show changes in appearance or composition. But the campaign plan will evolve as we examine the rocks in detail. As always, it's a mix of planning and discovery."

In orbital spectrometer observations, the iron-oxide mineral hematite shows up more strongly at the ridge top than elsewhere on lower Mount Sharp, including locations where Curiosity has already found hematite. Researchers seek to gain better understanding about why the ridge resists erosion, what concentrated its hematite, whether those factors are related, and what the rocks of the ridge can reveal about ancient Martian environmental conditions.

"The team is excited to be exploring Vera Rubin Ridge, as this hematite ridge has been a go-to target for Curiosity ever since Gale Crater was selected as the landing site," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist of NASA's Mars Exploration Program at the agency's Washington headquarters.

During the first year after its landing near the base of Mount Sharp, the Curiosity mission accomplished a major goal by determining that billions of years ago, a Martian lake offered conditions that would have been favorable for microbial life. Curiosity has since traversed through a diversity of environments where both water and wind have left their imprint. Vera Rubin Ridge and layers above it that contain clay and sulfate minerals provide tempting opportunities to learn even more about the history and habitability of ancient Mars.

For more about Curiosity, visit:

http://ift.tt/2hN72dB

News Media Contact

Guy Webster

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-6278

guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Laurie Cantillo / Dwayne Brown

NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1077 / 202-358-1726

laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov / dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

2017-241

from News and Features http://ift.tt/2jp9PdQ
via IFTTT

Cassini Spacecraft Makes Its Final Approach to Saturn

NASA's Cassini spacecraft is on final approach to Saturn, following confirmation by mission navigators that it is on course to dive into the planet's atmosphere on Friday, Sept. 15.

Cassini is ending its 13-year tour of the Saturn system with an intentional plunge into the planet to ensure Saturn's moons - in particular Enceladus, with its subsurface ocean and signs of hydrothermal activity - remain pristine for future exploration. The spacecraft's fateful dive is the final beat in the mission's Grand Finale, 22 weekly dives, which began in late April, through the gap between Saturn and its rings. No spacecraft has ever ventured so close to the planet before.

The mission's final calculations predict loss of contact with the Cassini spacecraft will take place on Sept. 15 at 7:55 a.m. EDT (4:55 a.m. PDT). Cassini will enter Saturn's atmosphere approximately one minute earlier, at an altitude of about 1,190 miles (1,915 kilometers) above the planet's estimated cloud tops (the altitude where the air pressure is 1-bar, equivalent to sea level on Earth). During its dive into the atmosphere, the spacecraft's speed will be approximately 70,000 miles (113,000 kilometers) per hour. The final plunge will take place on the day side of Saturn, near local noon, with the spacecraft entering the atmosphere around 10 degrees north latitude.

When Cassini first begins to encounter Saturn's atmosphere, the spacecraft's attitude control thrusters will begin firing in short bursts to work against the thin gas and keep Cassini's saucer-shaped high-gain antenna pointed at Earth to relay the mission's precious final data. As the atmosphere thickens, the thrusters will be forced to ramp up their activity, going from 10 percent of their capacity to 100 percent in the span of about a minute. Once they are firing at full capacity, the thrusters can do no more to keep Cassini stably pointed, and the spacecraft will begin to tumble.

When the antenna points just a few fractions of a degree away from Earth, communications will be severed permanently. The predicted altitude for loss of signal is approximately 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) above Saturn's cloud tops. From that point, the spacecraft will begin to burn up like a meteor. Within about 30 seconds following loss of signal, the spacecraft will begin to come apart; within a couple of minutes, all remnants of the spacecraft are expected to be completely consumed in the atmosphere of Saturn.

Due to the travel time for radio signals from Saturn, which changes as both Earth and the ringed planet travel around the Sun, events currently take place there 86 minutes before they are observed on Earth. This means that, although the spacecraft will begin to tumble and go out of communication at 6:31 a.m. EDT (3:31 a.m. PDT) at Saturn, the signal from that event will not be received at Earth until 86 minutes later.

"The spacecraft's final signal will be like an echo. It will radiate across the solar system for nearly an hour and a half after Cassini itself has gone," said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "Even though we'll know that, at Saturn, Cassini has already met its fate, its mission isn't truly over for us on Earth as long as we're still receiving its signal."

Cassini's last transmissions will be received by antennas at NASA's Deep Space Network complex in Canberra, Australia.

Cassini is set to make groundbreaking scientific observations of Saturn, using eight of its 12 science instruments. All of the mission's magnetosphere and plasma science instruments, plus the spacecraft's radio science system, and its infrared and ultraviolet spectrometers will collect data during the final plunge.

Chief among the observations being made as Cassini dives into Saturn are those of the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS). The instrument will directly sample the composition and structure of the atmosphere, which cannot be done from orbit. The spacecraft will be oriented so that INMS is pointed in the direction of motion, to allow it the best possible access to oncoming atmospheric gases.

For the next couple of days, as Saturn looms ever larger, Cassini expects to take a last look around the Saturn system, snapping a few final images of the planet, features in its rings, and the moons Enceladus and Titan. The final set of views from Cassini's imaging cameras is scheduled to be taken and transmitted to Earth on Thursday, Sept. 14. If all goes as planned, images will be posted to the Cassini mission website beginning around 11 p.m. EDT (8 p.m. PDT). The unprocessed images will be available at:

http://ift.tt/2nALlPF

Live mission commentary and video from JPL Mission Control will air on NASA Television from 7 to 8:30 a.m. EDT (4 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. PDT) on Sept. 15. A post-mission news briefing from JPL is currently scheduled for 9:30 a.m. EDT (6:30 a.m. PDT), also on NASA TV.

NASA TV is available online at:

http://ift.tt/2mkMV4N

A new NASA e-book, The Saturn System Through the Eyes of Cassini, showcasing compelling images and key science discoveries from the mission, is available for free download in multiple formats at:

http://ift.tt/2xkyci9

An online toolkit of information and resources about Cassini's Grand Finale and final plunge into Saturn is available at:

http://ift.tt/2nBhQsZ

Follow the Cassini spacecraft's plunge on social media using #GrandFinale, or visit:

https://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn

http://ift.tt/2wKNIDC

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter.

More information about Cassini:

http://ift.tt/2nVxm2X

http://ift.tt/1rJDu0Q

News Media Contact

Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo

NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077

dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov

Preston Dyches

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-7013

preston.dyches@jpl.nasa.gov

2017-240

from News and Features http://ift.tt/2eVo8la
via IFTTT

Cassini Spacecraft Makes Its Final Approach to Saturn

NASA's Cassini spacecraft is on final approach to Saturn, following confirmation by mission navigators that it is on course to dive into the planet’s atmosphere on Friday, Sept. 15.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2fiQIO8
via IFTTT

Three New Crew Members Arrive at International Space Station

After a six-hour flight, NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Joe Acaba and Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos arrived at the International Space Station at 10:57 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Sept. 12, where they will continue important scientific research.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2wYUTGp
via IFTTT

Cassini Makes its 'Goodbye Kiss' Flyby of Titan

NASA's Cassini spacecraft is headed toward its Sept. 15 plunge into Saturn, following a final, distant flyby of the planet's giant moon Titan.

The spacecraft made its closest approach to Titan today at 12:04 p.m. PDT (3:04 p.m. EDT), at an altitude of 73,974 miles (119,049 kilometers) above the moon's surface. The spacecraft is scheduled to make contact with Earth on Sept. 12 at about 6:19 p.m. PDT (9:19 p.m. EDT). Images and other science data taken during the encounter are expected to begin streaming to Earth soon after. Navigators will analyze the spacecraft's trajectory following this downlink to confirm that Cassini is precisely on course to dive into Saturn at the planned time, location and altitude.

This distant encounter is referred to informally as "the goodbye kiss" by mission engineers, because it provides a gravitational nudge that sends the spacecraft toward its dramatic ending in Saturn's upper atmosphere. The geometry of the flyby causes Cassini to slow down slightly in its orbit around Saturn. This lowers the altitude of its flight over the planet so that the spacecraft goes too deep into Saturn's atmosphere to survive, because friction with the atmosphere will cause Cassini to burn up.

Cassini has made hundreds of passes over Titan during its 13-year tour of the Saturn system -- including 127 precisely targeted encounters -- some at close range and some, like this one, more distant.

"Cassini has been in a long-term relationship with Titan, with a new rendezvous nearly every month for more than a decade," said Cassini Project Manager Earl Maize at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "This final encounter is something of a bittersweet goodbye, but as it has done throughout the mission, Titan's gravity is once again sending Cassini where we need it to go."

Cassini is ending its 13-year tour of the Saturn system with an intentional plunge into the planet to ensure Saturn's moons -- in particular Enceladus, with its subsurface ocean and signs of hydrothermal activity -- remain pristine for future exploration. The spacecraft's fateful dive is the final beat in the mission's Grand Finale, 22 weekly dives (begun in late April) through the gap between Saturn and its rings. No spacecraft has ever ventured so close to the planet before.

An online toolkit of information and resources about Cassini's Grand Finale and final plunge into Saturn is available at:

http://ift.tt/2nBhQsZ

The Cassini spacecraft was launched in 1997 and arrived at Saturn in 2004. During its time there, Cassini has made numerous dramatic discoveries, including a global ocean with indications of hydrothermal activity within the icy moon Enceladus, and liquid methane seas on another moon, Titan.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter.

More information about Cassini:

http://ift.tt/2nVxm2X

http://ift.tt/1rJDu0Q

News Media Contact

Preston Dyches

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-7013

preston.dyches@jpl.nasa.gov

2017-239

from News and Features http://ift.tt/2fetOaE
via IFTTT

U.S. Cargo Ship Set to Depart from International Space Station

After delivering more than 6,400 pounds of cargo, a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft will depart the International Space Station on Sunday, Sept. 17. NASA Television and the agency’s website will provide live coverage of Dragon's departure beginning at 4:30 a.m. EDT.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2wT2rwI
via IFTTT

After Cassini: Pondering the Saturn Mission's Legacy

As the Cassini spacecraft nears the end of a long journey rich with scientific and technical accomplishments, it is already having a powerful influence on future exploration. In revealing that Saturn's moon Enceladus has many of the ingredients needed for life, the mission has inspired a pivot to the exploration of "ocean worlds" that has been sweeping planetary science over the past decade.

"Cassini has transformed our thinking in so many ways, but especially with regard to surprising places in the solar system where life could potentially gain a foothold," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at Headquarters in Washington. "Congratulations to the entire Cassini team!"

Onward to Europa

Jupiter's moon Europa has been a prime target for future exploration since NASA's Galileo mission, in the late 1990s, found strong evidence for a salty global ocean of liquid water beneath its icy crust. But the more recent revelation that a much smaller moon like Enceladus could also have not only liquid water, but also chemical energy that could potentially power biology, was staggering.

Many lessons learned during Cassini's mission are being applied to planning NASA's Europa Clipper mission, planned for launch in the 2020s. Europa Clipper will fly by the icy ocean moon dozens of times to investigate its potential habitability, using an orbital tour design derived from the way Cassini has explored Saturn. The Europa Clipper mission will orbit the giant planet -- Jupiter in this case -- using gravitational assists from its large moons to maneuver the spacecraft into repeated close encounters with Europa. This is similar to the way Cassini's tour designers used the gravity of Saturn's moon Titan to continually shape their spacecraft's course.

In addition, many engineers and scientists from Cassini are serving on Europa Clipper and helping to develop its science investigations. For example, several members of the Cassini Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer and Cosmic Dust Analyzer teams are developing extremely sensitive, next-generation versions of their instruments for flight on Europa Clipper. What Cassini has learned about flying through the plume of material spraying from Enceladus will help inform planning for Europa Clipper, should plume activity be confirmed on Europa.

Returning to Saturn

Cassini also performed 127 close flybys of Saturn's haze-enshrouded moon Titan, showing it to be a remarkably complex factory for organic chemicals -- a natural laboratory for prebiotic chemistry. The mission investigated the cycling of liquid methane between clouds in its skies and great seas on its surface. By pulling back the veil on Titan, Cassini has ushered in a new era of extraterrestrial oceanography ­-- plumbing the depths of alien seas -- and delivered a fascinating example of earthlike processes occurring with chemistry and at temperatures markedly different from our home planet.

In the decades following Cassini, scientists hope to return to the Saturn system to follow up on the mission's many discoveries. Mission concepts under consideration include spacecraft to drift on the methane seas of Titan and fly through the Enceladus plume to collect and analyze samples for signs of biology.

Giant Planet Atmospheres

Atmospheric probes to all four of the outer planets have long been a priority for the science community, and the most recent Planetary Science Decadal Survey continues to support interest in sending such a mission to Saturn. By directly sampling Saturn's upper atmosphere during its last orbits and final plunge, Cassini is laying the groundwork for an eventual Saturn atmosphere probe.

Farther out in the solar system, scientists have long had their eyes set on exploring Uranus and Neptune. So far, each of these worlds has been visited by only one brief spacecraft flyby (Voyager 2, in 1986 and 1989, respectively). Collectively, Uranus and Neptune are referred to as "ice giant" planets, because they contain large amounts of materials (like water, ammonia and methane) that form ices in the cold depths of the outer solar system. This makes them fundamentally different from the gas giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, which are almost all hydrogen and helium, and the inner, rocky planets like Earth or Mars. It's not clear exactly how and where the ice giants formed, why their magnetic fields are strangely oriented, and what drives geologic activity on some of their moons. These mysteries make them scientifically important, and this importance is enhanced by the discovery that many planets around other stars appear to be similar to our own ice giants.

A variety of potential mission concepts are discussed in a recently completed study, delivered to NASA in preparation for the next Decadal Survey -- including orbiters, flybys and probes that would dive into Uranus' atmosphere to study its composition. Future missions to the ice giants might explore those worlds using an approach similar to Cassini's mission.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter.

More information about Cassini:

http://ift.tt/2nVxm2X

http://ift.tt/1rJDu0Q

News Media Contact

Preston Dyches

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-7013

preston.dyches@jpl.nasa.gov

2017-238

from News and Features http://ift.tt/2wcDmZf
via IFTTT

NASA/UCI Find Evidence of Sea Level 'Fingerprints'

New research will aid in sea level projections

Researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and the University of California, Irvine, have reported the first detection of sea level "fingerprints" in ocean observations: detectable patterns of sea level variability around the world resulting from changes in water storage on Earth's continents and in the mass of ice sheets. The results will give scientists confidence they can use these data to determine how much the sea level will rise at any point on the global ocean as a result of glacier ice melt.

As ice sheets and glaciers undergo climate-related melting, they alter Earth's gravity field, resulting in sea level changes that aren't uniform around the globe. For example, when a glacier loses ice mass, its gravitational attraction is reduced. Ocean waters nearby move away, causing sea level to rise faster far away from the glacier. The resulting pattern of sea level change is known as a sea level fingerprint. Certain regions, particularly in Earth's middle and low latitudes, are hit harder, and Greenland and Antarctica contribute differently to the process. For instance, sea level rise in California and Florida generated by the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet is up to 52 percent greater than its average effect on the rest of the world.

To calculate sea level fingerprints associated with the loss of ice from glaciers and ice sheets and from changes in land water storage, the team used gravity data collected by the twin satellites of the U.S./German Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) between April 2002 and October 2014. During that time, the loss of mass from land ice and from changes in land water storage increased global average sea level by about 0.07 inch (1.8 millimeters) per year, with 43 percent of the increased water mass coming from Greenland, 16 percent from Antarctica and 30 percent from mountain glaciers. The scientists then verified their calculations of sea level fingerprints using readings of ocean-bottom pressure from stations in the tropics.

"Scientists have a solid understanding of the physics of sea level fingerprints, but we've never had a direct detection of the phenomenon until now," said co-author Isabella Velicogna, UCI professor of Earth system science and JPL research scientist.

"It was very exciting to observe the sea level fingerprints in the tropics, far from the glaciers and ice sheets," said lead author Chia-Wei Hsu, a graduate student researcher at UCI.

The findings are published today in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The research project was supported by UCI and NASA's Earth Science Division.

GRACE is a joint NASA mission with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ), in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin. For more information on NASA's GRACE mission, visit:

http://ift.tt/2l8bsda

News Media Contact

Alan Buis

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-0474

Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

Brian Bell

UC Irvine 949-824-8249 bpbell@uci.edu

2017-237

from News and Features http://ift.tt/2wLPunE
via IFTTT

NASA Television Coverage Set for Next International Space Station Crew Launch

Two NASA astronauts are among the three crew members poised to launch for a five-month stay aboard the International Space Station, and NASA Television will provide extensive coverage of their prelaunch activities, launch and their arrival on their orbital outpost.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2vJzhfK
via IFTTT

Virginia Officials, Hidden Figures Author Join NASA in Honoring Legacy of Famed Mathematician; Live on NASA Television

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, and author Margot Lee-Shetterly are among the dignitaries honoring Katherine Johnson, former NASA employee and central character of the book and movie Hidden Figures, at 1 p.m. Sept. 22 at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2f7CoYQ
via IFTTT

NASA Awards Research, Engineering, Mission Integration Services Contract

NASA has selected 16 companies to provide a diverse range of competitive task-order contracts for serving the research and engineering products and services needs of the International Space Station.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2eM92C4
via IFTTT

Jupiter's Aurora Presents a Powerful Mystery

Scientists on NASA's Juno mission have observed massive amounts of energy swirling over Jupiter's polar regions that contribute to the giant planet's powerful aurora - only not in ways the researchers expected.

Examining data collected by the ultraviolet spectrograph and energetic-particle detector instruments aboard the Jupiter-orbiting Juno spacecraft, a team led by Barry Mauk of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, observed signatures of powerful electric potentials, aligned with Jupiter's magnetic field, that accelerate electrons toward the Jovian atmosphere at energies up to 400,000 electron volts. This is 10 to 30 times higher than the largest auroral potentials observed at Earth, where only several thousands of volts are typically needed to generate the most intense aurora -- known as discrete aurora -- the dazzling, twisting, snake-like northern and southern lights seen in places like Alaska and Canada, northern Europe, and many other northern and southern polar regions.

Jupiter has the most powerful aurora in the solar system, so the team was not surprised that electric potentials play a role in their generation. What's puzzling the researchers, Mauk said, is that despite the magnitudes of these potentials at Jupiter, they are observed only sometimes and are not the source of the most intense auroras, as they are at Earth.

"At Jupiter, the brightest auroras are caused by some kind of turbulent acceleration process that we do not understand very well," said Mauk, who leads the investigation team for the APL-built Jupiter Energetic Particle Detector Instrument (JEDI). "There are hints in our latest data indicating that as the power density of the auroral generation becomes stronger and stronger, the process becomes unstable and a new acceleration process takes over. But we'll have to keep looking at the data."

Scientists consider Jupiter to be a physics lab of sorts for worlds beyond our solar system, saying the ability of Jupiter to accelerate charged particles to immense energies has implications for how more distant astrophysical systems accelerate particles. But what they learn about the forces driving Jupiter's aurora and shaping its space weather environment also has practical implications in our own planetary backyard.

"The highest energies that we are observing within Jupiter's auroral regions are formidable. These energetic particles that create the aurora are part of the story in understanding Jupiter's radiation belts, which pose such a challenge to Juno and to upcoming spacecraft missions to Jupiter under development," said Mauk. "Engineering around the debilitating effects of radiation has always been a challenge to spacecraft engineers for missions at Earth and elsewhere in the solar system. What we learn here, and from spacecraft like NASA's Van Allen Probes and Magnetospheric Multiscale mission (MMS) that are exploring Earth's magnetosphere, will teach us a lot about space weather and protecting spacecraft and astronauts in harsh space environments. Comparing the processes at Jupiter and Earth is incredibly valuable in testing our ideas of how planetary physics works."

Mauk and colleagues present their findings in the Sept. 7 issue of the journal Nature.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft.

http://ift.tt/2tjqyTj

http://ift.tt/1IMLBRt

The public can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at:

http://ift.tt/29bldCg

https://www.twitter.com/NASAJuno

More information on Jupiter can be found at:

http://ift.tt/2pINwll

News Media Contact

DC Agle

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-9011 / 818-354-6278

agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Michael Buckley

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

443-778-7536

Michael.Buckley@jhuapl.edu

Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo

NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077

dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov

2017-236

from News and Features http://ift.tt/2gH8kTK
via IFTTT