NASA Awards Grants to Nine Informal Learning Institutions

NASA has awarded almost $10 million in grants to informal education organizations in seven states to help inspire the next generation of scientists and explorers.

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NASA Television to Air Next International Space Station Crew Launch

The next three crew members bound for the International Space Station are set to launch Wednesday, July 6. Live launch coverage will begin at 8:30 p.m. EDT on NASA Television and the agency's website.

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Rosetta finale set for 30 September

This article is mirrored from the ESA Web Portal. 

Rosetta approaching comet 67P/C-G from afar.

Rosetta is set to complete its mission in a controlled descent to the surface of its comet on 30 September.

The mission is coming to an end as a result of the spacecraft’s ever-increasing distance from the Sun and Earth. It is heading out towards the orbit of Jupiter, resulting in significantly reduced solar power to operate the craft and its instruments, and a reduction in bandwidth available to downlink scientific data.

Combined with an ageing spacecraft and payload that have endured the harsh environment of space for over 12 years – not least two years close to a dusty comet – this means that Rosetta is reaching the end of its natural life.

Where is Rosetta on 30 September?

Unlike in 2011, when Rosetta was put into a 31-month hibernation for the most distant part of its journey, this time it is riding alongside the comet. Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko’s maximum distance from the Sun (over 850 million km) is more than Rosetta has ever journeyed before. The result is that there is not enough power at its most distant point to guarantee that Rosetta’s heaters would be able to keep it warm enough to survive.

Instead of risking a much longer hibernation that is unlikely to be survivable, and after consultation with Rosetta’s science team in 2014, it was decided that Rosetta would follow its lander Philae down onto the comet.

The final hours of descent will enable Rosetta to make many once-in-a-lifetime measurements, including very-high-resolution imaging, boosting Rosetta’s science return with precious close-up data achievable only through such a unique conclusion.

Communications will cease, however, once the orbiter reaches the surface, and its operations will then end.

During Rosetta’s final descent, the spacecraft will image the comet’s surface in high resolution from just a few hundred metres. This OSIRIS narrow-angle camera image was taken on 28 May 2016, when the spacecraft was about 5 km from the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The scale is 0.13 m/pixel.
ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

“We’re trying to squeeze as many observations in as possible before we run out of solar power,” says Matt Taylor, ESA Rosetta project scientist. “30 September will mark the end of spacecraft operations, but the beginning of the phase where the full focus of the teams will be on science. That is what the Rosetta mission was launched for and we have years of work ahead of us, thoroughly analysing its data.”

Rosetta’s operators will begin changing the trajectory in August ahead of the grand finale such that a series of elliptical orbits will take it progressively nearer to the comet at its closest point.

“Planning this phase is in fact far more complex than it was for Philae’s landing,” says Sylvain Lodiot, ESA Rosetta spacecraft operations manager. “The last six weeks will be particularly challenging as we fly eccentric orbits around the comet – in many ways this will be even riskier than the final descent itself.

“The closer we get to the comet, the more influence its non-uniform gravity will have, requiring us to have more control on the trajectory, and therefore more manoeuvres – our planning cycles will have to be executed on much shorter timescales.”

A number of dedicated manoeuvres in the closing days of the mission will conclude with one final trajectory change at a distance of around 20 km about 12 hours before impact, to put the spacecraft on its final descent.

The region to be targeted for Rosetta’s impact is still under discussion, as spacecraft operators and scientists examine the various trade-offs involved, with several different trajectories being examined.

Broadly speaking, however, it is expected that impact will take place at about 50 cm/s, roughly half the landing speed of Philae in November 2014.

Commands uploaded in the days before will automatically ensure that the transmitter as well as all attitude and orbit control units and instruments are switched off upon impact, to fulfill spacecraft disposal requirements.

Rosetta faces a dusty environment like this every day at Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

In any case, Rosetta’s high-gain antenna will very likely no longer be pointing towards Earth following impact, making any potential communications virtually impossible.

In the meantime, science will continue as normal, although there are still many risks ahead. Last month, the spacecraft experienced a ‘safe mode’ while only 5 km from the comet as a result of dust confusing the navigation system. Rosetta recovered, but the mission team cannot rule out this happening again before the planned end of the mission.

“Although we’ll do the best job possible to keep Rosetta safe until then, we know from our experience of nearly two years at the comet that things may not go quite as we plan and, as always, we have to be prepared for the unexpected,” cautions Patrick Martin, ESA Rosetta’s mission manager.

“This is the ultimate challenge for our teams and for our spacecraft, and it will be a very fitting way to end the incredible and successful Rosetta mission.”

 

Details regarding the end of mission scenario are subject to change. Further information will be announced once available. 

Background information on ending Rosetta’s mission on the comet was published on the blog last year.

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Illinois Students Chat Live with NASA Astronaut, Space Station Commander

Students in Elgin, Illinois, will have the opportunity to speak with a NASA astronaut living and working aboard the International Space Station at 12:35 p.m. EDT Thursday, June 30. The 20-minute, Earth-to-space call will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

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NASA Awards Contract to Increase Water Recovery on Space Station

NASA has selected Paragon Space Development Corporation, a small business headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, to develop a system that will increase the rate of water recovery from the urine of astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

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NASA TV News Conference, Media Availability With Next Space Station Crew

NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and two Russian crewmates will answer questions about their upcoming mission on the International Space Station at a news conference, and be available for one-on-one interviews, Thursday, July 7, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The 2 p.m. EDT news conference will air live on NASA Television and stream on th

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NASA's Space Launch System Booster Passes Major Milestone on Journey to Mars

A booster for the most powerful rocket in the world, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), successfully fired up Tuesday for its second qualification ground test at Orbital ATK's test facilities in Promontory, Utah. This was the last full-scale test for the booster before SLS’s first uncrewed test flight with NASA’s Orion spacecraft in late 2018, a key

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OSIRIS data release – including “shadow” flyby

Remember the stunning image Rosetta snapped of its own shadow last year? This was just one of twelve images taken by the OSIRIS narrow-angle camera during the 6 km flyby of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 14 February 2015 that captured the shadow, and which have today been released into the Archive Image Browser and the Planetary Science Archive.

 

Animation showing Rosetta’s shadow move across the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during the 14 February 2015 flyby. The sequence lasts from 12:38 to 12:41 UT. The full resolution images can be downloaded from the Archive. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

This latest OSIRIS data release comprises 1357 narrow-angle camera images and 2162 wide-angle camera images from the period 20 December 2014 – 10 March 2015. During this time Rosetta was initially in ~28 km orbits around the comet. In early February the spacecraft moved out to 142 km before swooping past the comet at 6 km on 14 February and away again (this video visualizes Rosetta’s trajectory at that time).

The 14 February flyby was not only special because it was the closest Rosetta had ever been to the surface of the comet at that time but it also passed through a unique observational geometry: for a short time the Sun, spacecraft, and comet were exactly aligned. In this geometry, surface structures cast almost no shadows, and therefore the reflection properties of the surface material can be determined. As a side effect, Rosetta’s shadow could also be seen, cast on the surface of the comet as a fuzzy rectangular-shaped dark spot surrounded by a bright halo-like region. The shadow is fuzzy and somewhat larger than Rosetta itself, measuring approximately 20 x 50 metres. (For more information about this effect see last year’s blog post “Comet flyby: OSIRIS catches glimpse of Rosetta’s shadow").

Example of images from the OSIRIS wide-angle camera albums in the latest data release. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

The data release also contains many other beauty shots of the comet from both near and far, with the wide-angle camera shots in particular capturing the comet’s ever-increasing activity at that time.

Also today, 540 new NAVCAM images were added to the Archive Image Browser. The latest batch cover the period 4-31 May 2016 and as such include images from the close flyby that took Rosetta to within 5 km of the surface.

Examples of NAVCAM images from the May 2016 archive. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NavCam – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

For more recent OSIRIS images, see the OSIRIS image of the day archive.

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UPDATE: NASA to Discuss, Broadcast Booster Test for Space Launch System Rocket

The booster for the world's most powerful rocket, NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), which will power the agency’s astronauts on the journey to Mars, will fire up for a major ground test at 10:05 a.m. EDT (8:05 a.m. MDT) Tuesday, June 28, at Orbital ATK Propulsion Systems’ test facilities in Promontory, Utah.

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NASA TV to Air Russian Cargo Ship Movement at Space Station

A Russian cargo ship currently docked to the International Space Station will undock for a short test flight on Friday, July 1. NASA Television coverage will begin at 1:15 a.m. EDT.

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NASA Brings Journey to Mars and Beyond to ESSENCE Festival

Visitors to the 2016 ESSENCE Festival in New Orleans will have a chance to explore the universe through a range of activities, including first-ever festival stage presentations, during NASA Week, a celebration of space exploration to be held June 29-July 3, in conjunction with ESSENCE Festival, which begins June 30.

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