Fwd: What's Ahead for Human Rated SpaceX Dragon in 2014 - Musk tells Universe Today

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: December 31, 2013 12:28:33 PM CST
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: What's Ahead for Human Rated SpaceX Dragon in 2014 - Musk tells Universe Today

 

 

What's Ahead for Human Rated SpaceX Dragon in 2014 – Musk tells Universe Today

by Ken Kremer on December 30, 2013

Falcon 9 SpaceX CRS-2 launch of Dragon spacecraft on March 1, 2013 to the ISS from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida.- shot from the roof of the Vehicle Assembly Building. During 2014, SpaceX plans two flight tests simulating human crewed Dragon emergency abort scenarios launching from here at pad 40. Credit: Ken Kremer/www.kenkremer.com

CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FL – A trio of American companies – SpaceX, Boeing, and Sierra Nevada – are working diligently to restore America's capability to launch humans into low Earth orbit from US soil, aided by seed money from NASA's Commercial Crew Program in a public-private partnership.

We've been following the solid progress made by all three companies. Here we'll focus on two crucial test flights planned by SpaceX in 2014 to human rate and launch the crewed version of their entry into the commercial crew 'space taxi' sweepstakes, namely the Dragon spacecraft.

Recently I had the opportunity to speak about the upcoming test flights with the head of SpaceX, Elon Musk.

So I asked Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, about what's ahead in 2014; specifically related to a pair of critical "abort tests" that he hopes to conduct with the human rated "version of our Dragon spacecraft."

"Assuming all goes well, we expect to conduct [up to] two Dragon abort tests next year in 2014," Musk told me.

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk briefs reporters including Universe Today in Cocoa Beach, FL prior to planned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blastoff with SES-8 communications satellite from Cape Canaveral, FL. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

The two abort flight tests in 2014 involve demonstrating the ability of the Dragon spacecraft abort system to lift an uncrewed spacecraft clear of a simulated launch emergency.

First a brief overview of the goals of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. It was started in the wake of the retirement of NASA's Space Shuttle program which flew its final human crews to the International Space Station (ISS) in mid-2011.

"NASA has tasked SpaceX, Boeing, and Sierra Nevada to develop spacecraft capable of safely transporting humans to the space station, returning that capability to the United States where it belongs,' says NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

Since 2011, US astronauts have been 100% dependent on the Russians and their Soyuz capsules to hitch a ride to low Earth orbit and the ISS.

The abort tests are essential for demonstrating that the Dragon vehicle will activate thrusters and separate in a split second from a potentially deadly exploding rocket fireball to save astronauts lives in the event of a real life emergency – either directly on the launch pad or in flight.

"We are aiming to do at least the pad abort test next year [in 2014] with version 2 of our Dragon spacecraft that would carry astronauts," Musk told me.

SpaceX plans to launch the crewed Dragon atop the human rated version of their own developed Falcon 9 next generation rocket, which is also being simultaneously developed to achieve all of NASA's human rating requirements.

The initial pad abort test will test the ability of the full-size Dragon to safely push away and escape in case of a failure of its Falcon 9 booster rocket, right at the launch pad.

"The purpose of the pad abort test is to demonstrate Dragon has enough total impulse (thrust) to safely abort," added SpaceX spokeswoman Emily Shanklin.

For that test, Dragon will use its pusher escape abort thrusters to lift the Dragon safely away from the failing rocket. The vehicle will be positioned on a structural facsimile of the Dragon trunk in which the actual Falcon 9/Dragon interfaces will be represented by mockups.

This test will be conducted on SpaceX's launch pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It will not include an actual Falcon 9 booster.

The second Dragon flight test involves simulating an in flight emergency abort scenario during ascent at high altitude at maximum aerodynamic pressure at about T plus 1 minute, to save astronauts lives. The pusher abort thrusters would propel the capsule and crew safely away from a failing Falcon 9 booster for a parachute assisted landing into the Atlantic Ocean.

"Assuming all goes well we expect to launch the high altitude abort test towards the end of next year," Musk explained.

The second test will use the upgraded next generation version of the Falcon 9 that was successfully launched just weeks ago on its maiden mission from Cape Canaveral on Dec. 3. Read my earlier reports – starting here.

Next Generation SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off with SES-8 communications satellite on Dec. 3, 2013 from Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral, FL. The upgraded Falcon 9 will be used to launch the human rated SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to the ISS. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

To date, SpaceX has already successfully launched the original cargo version of the Dragon a total of three times. And each one docked as planned at the ISS.

The last cargo Dragon blasted off in March 2012. Read my articles starting – here.

The next cargo Dragon bound for the ISS is due to lift off on Feb. 22, 2014.

NASA's Commercial Crew Program's goal is launching American astronauts from U.S. soil within the next four years – by 2017 to the ISS.

The 2017 launch date is dependent on funding from the US federal government that will enable each of the firms to accomplish a specified series of milestone. NASA payments are only made after the each companies milestones are successfully achieved.

Musk hopes to launch an initial Dragon orbital test flight with a human crew of SpaceX test pilots perhaps as early as sometime in 2015 – if funding and all else goes well.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Ken Kremer of Universe Today discuss SpaceX upcoming flight plans by SpaceX Mission Control at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Florida. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

===============================================================

Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - December 31, 2013

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: December 31, 2013 11:45:04 AM CST
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - December 31, 2013

Have a Happy and Healthy New Year everyone.   Hope to see you next year!

 

NASA TV: www.nasa.gov/ntv
9:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 7 p.m., 9:30 p.m. Central – This Year at NASA 2013

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: Last week, coverage from the Christmas Eve spacewalk was shown on thousands of news sources, including 3,000 television broadcasts, reaching a total audience of 193 million people on Dec. 24.

 

Human Spaceflight News

Tuesday – Dec. 31, 2013

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

Beyonce slammed for 'shock value' use of shuttle disaster audio in song

Heather Alexander, Houston Chronicle

Beyoncé's at the center of a huge online upset after her use of an audio clip from the space shuttle Challenger disaster angered families of the astronauts who died.

NASA Responds to Beyoncé's Use of Challenger Disaster Audio for Song 'XO'

Beyoncé's new song "XO" doesn't appear to be a hit with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The agency has responded to the song's use of an audio clip from the disastrous Space Shuttle Challenger launch on Jan. 28, 1986.

Beyonce criticized for sampling Challenger disaster audio

A six-second audio clip on the song 'XO' has opened wounds for astronauts and their families.

Cindy Clark, USA TODAY

A song on Beyoncé's latest album has upset families of the victims of the 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster.

New Year 2014: Where to Watch NASA's New Year's Greetings from Space

Floyd Allen, REUTERS

What a better way to greet the New Year from space? NASA astronauts will be welcoming 2014 from space and revelers at the New York's Time Square will have the rare chance to watch the greetings from space.

According to the PR Newswire, a video will be shown in from space by astronaut Mike Massimino. The video features Expedition 36 flight engineer Karen Nyberg who returned from space in November.

What's Ahead for Human Rated SpaceX Dragon in 2014

Ken Kremer – Universe Today

CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FL – A trio of American companies – SpaceX, Boeing, and Sierra Nevada – are working diligently to restore America's capability to launch humans into low Earth orbit from US soil, aided by seed money from NASA's Commercial Crew Program in a public-private partnership.

NASA 'super ball bot' could one day bounce onto Saturn's moon Titan

Amina Khan – Los Angeles Times

Among all the challenges of sending robotic explorers to other planets and moons, nailing the landing has to be the most nail-biting part. Now, a team at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View has devised a strange, flexible "super ball bot" concept that could take a rough landing on another world's surface and use the same structure to start rolling like tumbleweed around the terrain.

EDITORIAL

Moon over China

The [Toledo] Blade

China made history this month by landing an unmanned spacecraft on the moon. That feat was previously accomplished only by the United States and the former Soviet Union.

The lunar probe, which landed Dec. 14, is the culmination of four decades of planning by the world's second largest economic power. China has made no secret of its desire to become a major player in space exploration; the United States and Russia are the undisputed leaders, while India and the European Space Agency are making major strides.

Alien planet may lurk near

Space.com

Astronomers have spotted signs of a possible exoplanet in a nearby system of twin failed stars. If confirmed, the alien world would be one of the closest to our sun ever found.

ESA's Gaia Will Explore Milky Way's Origins

Amy Svitak, Aviation Week

With the launch of Europe's Gaia star-mapping mission, scientists are one step closer to deciphering the history of the Milky Way, and to predicting how it might evolve in the future.

Israel a step closer to the moon, with propulsion deal

The lightest and smallest craft to ever lift off and reach the moon could net Israel $30 million from Google, its sponsors say

By David Shamah – The Times of Israel

Israel's moonshot project is a lot closer to reality after the SpaceIL organization, which is developing the Israeli spacecraft that will journey to the moon in 2015, acquired this month the engine for the rocket that will blast Israel's lunar lander into space. The Israel-developed propulsion system, produced by Israel Aircraft Industries, cost several million dollars, SpaceIL said, and is "among the most critical components of the project," the organization added.

Mars Express Orbiter Buzzes Martian Moon Phobos

Ian O'Neill, Discovery

On Sunday, at 5:17 p.m. GMT (12:17 p.m. EST), Europe's Mars Express orbiter successfully completed a daring low-pass of Mars' largest moon Phobos.In an effort to precisely measure the gravitational field of the moon, the 10 year-old mission was sent on a trajectory that took it only 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the dusty surface, the closest any spacecraft has ever come to the natural satellite.

Mock Mars Mission: Packing for the Red Planet

Elizabeth Howell, SPACE.com

OTTAWA, CANADA — I'll admit it: I've become that annoying friend and family member, just in time for the busy holiday season. While the people I know are preoccupied with Christmas and New Year's events, I'm making constant requests to borrow things from them.

Mars One Narrows List Of Wannabe Martians For 2025 Colony

A private company hoping to populate Mars has narrowed its applicant pool by 99.5 percent. Here's a by-the-numbers look at the remaining 1,058 applicants.

Kelsey D. Atherton, Popular Science

The number of Earthlings looking at a potential one-way ticket to Mars has just shrunk by 99.5 percent.

 

COMPLETE STORIES

Beyonce slammed for 'shock value' use of shuttle disaster audio in song

By Heather Alexander, Houston Chronicle

Beyoncé's at the center of a huge online upset after her use of an audio clip from the space shuttle Challenger disaster angered families of the astronauts who died.

In the clip that opens her song XO, listeners hear a NASA announcer saying, "Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation.  Obviously a major malfunction."

"These words were uttered as the crew and their disintegrating vehicle were still falling into the sea," said Keith Cowing, a former NASA emplyee and founder of Nasawatch.com.

"The choice (of using the clip) is little different than taking 911 calls from the World Trade Center attack and using them for shock value in a pop tune," Cowing said.

Challenger exploded on Jan. 28, 1986, as it aired live on TV. It was just 73 seconds into its flight and all 7 onboard were killed.

The families of the astronauts who died say they are "disappointed" with Beyoncé's choice to include the clip.

Dr. June Scobbe Rodgers, the widow of Challenger Commander Dick Scobee said in a statement, "The moment included in this song is an emotionally difficult one for the Challenger families, colleagues and friends."

NASA images and audio material are in the public domain and are not copyrighted so they can't stop people using them.

According to the NASA website, content is available for commercial use as long as it does not "explicitly or implicitly convey NASA's endorsement of commercial goods or services."

NASA has, however, released a statement saying that the Challenger accident is, "a tragic reminder that space exploration is risky and should never be trivialized."

Astronaut Clay Anderson who flew on the shuttle twice told ABC News, "For the words to be used in the video is simply insensitive, at the very least."

Beyoncé has claimed song writers used the clip as a tribute to the "unselfish work of the Challenger crew."  In a statement to ABC News she reportedly said, "My heart goes out to the families of those lost in the disaster. The song 'XO' was recorded with the sincerest intention to help heal those who have lost loved ones and to remind us that unexpected things happen."

Keith Cowing told the Houston Chronicle that the song was in bad taste.

"If the song was about heroes exploring or something it might be different, but it's about some guy who broke up with some girl," Cowing said.

He said the statement from the singer is more like "ass-covering on their part," and that Beyonce should apologize and take the clip out of the song.

"Beyoncé was a little girl living in Houston in 1986 when her astronaut neighbors died on their way to work in outer space. She needs to apologize for using this audio clip and remove it from the song."

 

NASA Responds to Beyoncé's Use of Challenger Disaster Audio for Song 'XO'

Beyoncé's new song "XO" doesn't appear to be a hit with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The agency has responded to the song's use of an audio clip from the disastrous Space Shuttle Challenger launch on Jan. 28, 1986.

"The Challenger accident is an important part of our history; a tragic reminder that space exploration is risky and should never be trivialized," the agency said in a statement. "NASA works every day to honor the legacy of our fallen astronauts as we carry out our mission to reach for new heights and explore the universe."

A representative for Beyoncé didn't return a request for comment.

The shuttle was beginning its 10th mission when it exploded 73 seconds after liftoff, killing its crew of seven. The Beyoncé album includes a few seconds of audio from the aftermath of the explosion in which an announcer says, "Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction."

For some people who recall the launch broadcast, that snippet of audio reflects a watershed in live television. For many spectators, especially those gathered outside near the launch pad, it wasn't immediately clear that the ship had exploded. Cameras showed close-ups of spectators, including crew-member relatives, who initially appeared confused but gradually realized what had happened.

 

Beyonce criticized for sampling Challenger disaster audio

A six-second audio clip on the song 'XO' has opened wounds for astronauts and their families.

Cindy Clark, USA TODAY

A song on Beyoncé's latest album has upset families of the victims of the 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster.

The love song XO opens with a six-second audio sample that originally was broadcast in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 28, 1986 explosion that took the lives of all seven crew members on board. "Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction," now-retired NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt said as the nation watched the shuttle explode 73 seconds after liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center.

June Scobee Rodgers, the widow of Challenger Commander Dick Scobee, said she was "disappointed" to hear of Beyoncé's use of the clip. "The moment included in this song is an emotionally difficult one for the Challenger families, colleagues and friends. We have always chosen to focus not on how our loved ones were lost, but rather on how they lived and how their legacy lives on today."

Beyoncé was quick to issue an apology, telling ABC News in a statement on Monday: "My heart goes out to the families of those lost in the Challenger disaster. The song XO was recorded with the sincerest intention to help heal those who have lost loved ones and to remind us that unexpected things happen, so love and appreciate every minute that you have with those who mean the most to you. The songwriters included the audio in tribute to the unselfish work of the Challenger crew with hope that they will never be forgotten."

This isn't Beyonce's first interaction with NASA: in 2011, she recorded a wake-up greeting for the orbiting crew of STS-135, the final space shuttle flight. "You inspire all of us to dare to live our dreams, to know that we're smart enough and strong enough to achieve them," she told the Atlantis crew.

 

New Year 2014: Where to Watch NASA's New Year's Greetings from Space

Floyd Allen, REUTERS

What a better way to greet the New Year from space? NASA astronauts will be welcoming 2014 from space and revelers at the New York's Time Square will have the rare chance to watch the greetings from space.

According to the PR Newswire, a video will be shown in from space by astronaut Mike Massimino. The video features Expedition 36 flight engineer Karen Nyberg who returned from space in November.

The short clip also features the three more astronauts who are now on board the space station, including Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins. Joining them is Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Koichi Wakata.

The New Year countdown will be shown on New Year's eve through Toshiba Vision screen positioned on top of One Times Square from 6 p.m. to 12:15 a.m. EST. The crowd will not miss the greetings from space as it will be played below the New Year countdown ball.

In a related news, space station astronauts have also completed a Christmas Eve spacewalk, making some repairs to a disabled cooling system. Braving the "mini-blizzard" of noxious ammonia as they came out in new pump, the astronauts were ordered to "revive a critical cooling loop" at the International Space Station.

The task was successfully undertaken by Mastracchio and Hopkins, who both succeeded in restoring the cooling system and other back up equipment.

"It's the best Christmas ever," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Mission Control as radioing while monitoring the 7½-hour spacewalk.

"Merry Christmas to everybody," said Hopkins, noted SMH, before adding. "It took a couple weeks to get her done, but we got it."

Mastracchio, Hopkins and Wakate are part of the space crew who are currently orbiting the space. With them are Oleg Kotov, Mikhail Tyurin and Sergey Ryazanski from the Russian Federal Space Agency.

 

What's Ahead for Human Rated SpaceX Dragon in 2014

Ken Kremer – Universe Today

CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FL – A trio of American companies – SpaceX, Boeing, and Sierra Nevada – are working diligently to restore America's capability to launch humans into low Earth orbit from US soil, aided by seed money from NASA's Commercial Crew Program in a public-private partnership.

We've been following the solid progress made by all three companies. Here we'll focus on two crucial test flights planned by SpaceX in 2014 to human rate and launch the crewed version of their entry into the commercial crew 'space taxi' sweepstakes, namely the Dragon spacecraft.

Recently I had the opportunity to speak about the upcoming test flights with the head of SpaceX, Elon Musk.

So I asked Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, about "what's ahead in 2014″; specifically related to a pair of critical "abort tests" that he hopes to conduct with the human rated "version of our Dragon spacecraft."

The two abort flight tests in 2014 involve demonstrating the ability of the Dragon spacecraft abort system to lift an uncrewed spacecraft clear of a simulated launch emergency.

The crewed Dragon – also known as DragonRider – will be capable of lofting up to seven astronauts to the ISS and remaining docked for at least 180 days.

First a brief overview of the goals of NASA's Commercial Crew Program: It was started in the wake of the retirement of NASA's Space Shuttle program which flew its final human crews to the International Space Station (ISS) in mid-2011.

"NASA has tasked SpaceX, Boeing, and Sierra Nevada to develop spacecraft capable of safely transporting humans to the space station, returning that capability to the United States where it belongs,' says NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

Since 2011, US astronauts have been 100% dependent on the Russians and their Soyuz capsules to hitch a ride to low Earth orbit and the ISS.

The abort tests are essential for demonstrating that the Dragon vehicle will activate thrusters and separate in a split second from a potentially deadly exploding rocket fireball to save astronauts lives in the event of a real life emergency – either directly on the launch pad or in flight.

"We are aiming to do at least the pad abort test next year [in 2014] with version 2 of our Dragon spacecraft that would carry astronauts," Musk told me.

SpaceX plans to launch the crewed Dragon atop the human rated version of their own developed Falcon 9 next generation rocket, which is also being simultaneously developed to achieve all of NASA's human rating requirements.

The initial pad abort test will test the ability of the full-size Dragon to safely push away and escape in case of a failure of its Falcon 9 booster rocket in the moments around launch, right at the launch pad.

"The purpose of the pad abort test is to demonstrate Dragon has enough total impulse (thrust) to safely abort," SpaceX spokeswoman Emily Shanklin informed me.

For that test, Dragon will use its pusher escape abort thrusters to lift the Dragon safely away from the failing rocket. The vehicle will be positioned on a structural facsimile of the Dragon trunk in which the actual Falcon 9/Dragon interfaces will be represented by mockups.

This test will be conducted on SpaceX's launch pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It will not include an actual Falcon 9 booster.

The second Dragon flight test involves simulating an in-flight emergency abort scenario during ascent at high altitude at maximum aerodynamic pressure at about T plus 1 minute, to save astronauts lives. The pusher abort thrusters would propel the capsule and crew safely away from a failing Falcon 9 booster for a parachute assisted landing into the Atlantic Ocean.

"Assuming all goes well we expect to launch the high altitude abort test towards the end of next year," Musk explained.

The second test will use the upgraded next generation version of the Falcon 9 that was successfully launched just weeks ago on its maiden mission from Cape Canaveral on Dec. 3.

To date, SpaceX has already successfully launched the original cargo version of the Dragon a total of three times. And each one docked as planned at the ISS.

The last cargo Dragon blasted off on March 1, 2013.

The next cargo Dragon bound for the ISS is due to lift off on Feb. 22, 2014 from Cape Canaveral, FL.

Orbital Sciences – the commercial ISS cargo competitor to SpaceX – plans to launch its Cygnus cargo vehicle on the Orb-1 mission bound for the ISS on Jan. 7 atop the firms Antares rocket from NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Watch for my on site reports from NASA Wallops.

NASA's Commercial Crew Program's goal is launching American astronauts from U.S. soil within the next four years – by 2017 to the ISS.

The 2017 launch date is dependent on funding from the US federal government that will enable each of the firms to accomplish a specified series of milestone. NASA payments are only made after each companies milestones are successfully achieved.

SpaceX was awarded $440 million in the third round of funding in the Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCAP) initiative which runs through the third quarter of 2014. As of November 2013, NASA said SpaceX had accomplished 9 of 15 milestones and was on track to complete all on time.

Musk hopes to launch an initial Dragon orbital test flight with a human crew of SpaceX test pilots perhaps as early as sometime in 2015 – if funding and all else goes well.

 

NASA 'super ball bot' could one day bounce onto Saturn's moon Titan

Amina Khan – Los Angeles Times

Among all the challenges of sending robotic explorers to other planets and moons, nailing the landing has to be the most nail-biting part. Now, a team at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View has devised a strange, flexible "super ball bot" concept that could take a rough landing on another world's surface and use the same structure to start rolling like tumbleweed around the terrain.

The super ball bot is unlike any landing gear ever sent to another planet. For example, the 2004 Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity essentially used a giant airbag ball to cushion the spacecraft as it bounced across the surface. It looks safe – until you consider that one sharp rock at just the right angle could puncture the thing as it bounced. The new-and-improved 2012 rover Curiosity used a highly complex landing system, including a supersonic parachute and a hovering platform, to lower the rover to the surface -- a series of events that became part of the dramatic "seven minutes of terror."

But this system would be completely different, Vytas Sunspiral, a senior robotics researcher at NASA Ames, explains in a NASA video. It sports a semi-rigid but flexible structure, made of stiff poles and stretchy cables, that can distribute the force from an impact at one point all over its system, protecting the payload of scientific instruments suspended at its center.

He added that it's a lot like a much more familiar shock-absorption system: our own skeletons.

"We have traditionally built robots in this very rigidly connected manner where you have elements that are hinged together with motors, but that's not how we work," Sunspiral said. "There's no pin that holds our bones together. There's no rigid hinge there. In fact there's a lot of fluidity and a lot of freedom of motion between the bones."

And, unlike the airbag or hovering aircraft systems, the super ball bot landing structure is also a roving system. Using the same globular network of poles and cables, the robot can get rolling and pick its way across the surface. The bots will also need smart software that will allow them to "evolve," picking the right rules to guide them across unfamiliar terrain, all without constant direction from a human handler on Earth. The researchers are working on prototypes.

"The point of this is to create a landing system that can both act like an airbag ... and then once it's landed, that very same structure can roll and move," Sunspiral said.

With no need to pack extra landing equipment, this could save money and energy, as it would require less fuel to send the rocket carrying it into space. This could make for much cheaper missions down the line, the researcher said.

But because the robots are so space-efficient -- they could fold up during flight, taking up much less room -- it could also mean that scientists could send not just one, but dozens of them to a new world to study.

One ideal place to send a team of rolling robots? Saturn's icy moon Titan, NASA says. 

"Such teams will allow rapid, reliable in-situ exploration of hazardous destinations such as Titan," according to a NASA page explaining the robot concept, "where imprecise terrain knowledge and unstable precipitation cycles make single-robot exploration problematic.

 

EDITORIAL

Moon over China

The [Toledo] Blade

China made history this month by landing an unmanned spacecraft on the moon. That feat was previously accomplished only by the United States and the former Soviet Union.

The lunar probe, which landed Dec. 14, is the culmination of four decades of planning by the world's second largest economic power. China has made no secret of its desire to become a major player in space exploration; the United States and Russia are the undisputed leaders, while India and the European Space Agency are making major strides.

Only the United States can boast of manned missions to the moon, the last of which occurred in the early 1970s. Russia landed an unmanned exploratory craft on the moon in 1976.

China won't try a manned lunar landing until sometime in the 2020s. By then, the United States hopes to have landed astronauts on a nearby asteroid and circled Mars with a manned flight.

The Chinese moon rover Jade Rabbit is in "sleep mode" because of the low temperatures at its landing site, the Bay of Rainbows. It will survey the area for three months after it wakes up.

Meanwhile, the lander will collect data around the site for a year. The mission is expected to yield a trove of new information that will benefit space programs around the world.

The United States and China don't typically work together on space exploration because of U.S. laws that limit cooperation, but China's lunar success will likely spur an American re-engagement with space. China's success on the moon is good not only for that country, but also for the United States.

 

Alien planet may lurk near

Space.com

Astronomers have spotted signs of a possible exoplanet in a nearby system of twin failed stars. If confirmed, the alien world would be one of the closest to our sun ever found.

Scientists only discovered the pair of failed stars, known as brown dwarfs, last year. At just 6.6 light-years from Earth, the pair is the third closest system to our sun. It's actually so close that "television transmissions from 2006 are now arriving there," Kevin Luhman, of Penn State's Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, noted when their discovery was first announced in June.

The brown dwarf system, which has been dubbed Luhman 16AB and is officially classifed as WISE J104915.57-531906, is slightly more distant than Barnard's star, a red dwarf 6 light-years away that was first seen in 1916. Even closer to our sun is Alpha Centauri, whose two main stars form a binary pair about 4.4 light-years away. The alien planet Alpha Centauri Bb is known to orbit one of the stars in the Alpha Centauri system, and currently holds the title of closest exoplanet to our solar system.]

The brown dwarfs were spotted in data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft, which took about 1.8 million images of asteroids, stars and galaxies during its ambitious 13-month mission to scan the entire sky. Brown dwarfs are sometimes called failed stars because they are bigger than planets but don't enough mass to kick-off nuclear fusion at their core.

Henri Boffin of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) led a team of astronomers seeking to learn more about our newfound dim neighbors. The group used the very sensitive FORS2 instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope at Paranal in Chile to take astrometric measurements of the objects during a two-month observation campaign from April to June 2013. (Astrometry involves tracking the precise motions of a star in the sky.)

"We have been able to measure the positions of these two objects with a precision of a few milli-arcseconds," Boffin said in a statement. "That is like a person in Paris being able to measure the position of someone in New York with a precision of 10 centimeters."

The group discovered that both brown dwarfs in the system have a mass 30 to 50 times the mass of Jupiter. (By comparison, our sun's mass is about 1,000 Jupiter masses.) Because their mass is so low, they take about 20 years to complete one orbit around each other, the astronomers said.

Boffin's team also discovered slight disturbances in the orbits of these objects during their two-month observation period. They believe the tug of a third object, perhaps a planet around one of the two brown dwarfs, could be behind these slight variations.

"Further observations are required to confirm the existence of a planet," Boffin aid in a statement. "But it may well turn out that the closest brown dwarf binary system to the sun turns out to be a triple system!"

So far, only eight exoplanets have been discovered around brown dwarfs, and they were found through microlensing and direct imaging, the astronomers say. The team added that the potential planet in Luhman 16AB could be the first alien discovered using astrometry if confirmed.

 

ESA's Gaia Will Explore Milky Way's Origins

Amy Svitak – Aviation Week

With the launch of Europe's Gaia star-mapping mission, scientists are one step closer to deciphering the history of the Milky Way, and to predicting how it might evolve in the future.

Equipped with twin silicon-carbide telescopes built around a one-billion-pixel focal array—the largest ever built—the European Space Agency's (ESA) Gaia mission is designed to survey a billion stars in the galaxy, providing scientists with the most precise 3-D map to date for understanding its composition and evolution.

"For the first time we will have a fair sample of what is out there, where it is, how it is moving, how [dark] matter is distributed, where and when stars formed, and where and when the chemical elements of which we are made were created," says Gaia's U.K. Principal Investigator Gerry Gilmore.

ESA says the spacecraft and its sophisticated instruments are designed to measure the angular position of stars between 7-300 microseconds of arc—100 times the accuracy of ESA's 1989 Hipparcos mission, and equivalent to a terrestrial measurement of an astronaut's thumbnail on the lunar surface.

The resulting census will help astronomers determine the position, motion and properties of each star—attributes that can provide clues about their history—to create a "family tree" of the galaxy. ESA says the motions of these stars can then be viewed rapidly in forward or reverse, to determine more about how the galaxy was formed and to learn more about its ultimate fate.

Gaia blasted off at 6:12 a.m. local time on Dec. 19 atop a Soyuz ST-B rocket from ESA's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. About 10 min. later, after separation of the first three stages, the Fregat upper stage ignited, delivering Gaia into a temporary parking orbit at an altitude of 175 km (109 mi.). A second firing of the Fregat 11 min. later took Gaia into its transfer orbit, followed by spacecraft separation at 42 min. after liftoff. With the 2,034-kg Gaia on its way to the L2 Lagrange point 1.5 million km from Earth, ESA said it has established ground telemetry and attitude control from its operations center in Darmstadt, Germany, and that the spacecraft is now activating its systems.

Engineers commanded Gaia to perform the first of two critical thruster firings Dec. 20 to ensure it is on the right trajectory toward L2. About 20 days after launch, a second critical burn is expected to insert the spacecraft into its operational orbit, beginning a four-month commissioning phase in which all of the systems and instruments will be turned on, checked and calibrated before beginning its five-year mission.

Led by France, Germany and the U.K., the €940 million ($1.3 billion) Gaia mission was equipped by EADS-Astrium, starting with a €317 million contract awarded by ESA in May 2006.

In the course of its five-plus year mission, Gaia will observe more than 40 million objects per day, collecting 100 terabytes of raw data and yielding 1 petabyte of processed and archived data. Even after being compressed by software, the data produced is expected to fill over 30,000 CD ROMs.

Over a decade in the making, Gaia is two years behind schedule and 16% over budget, owing to technical issues with the satellite's instruments and delays due to a crowded manifest in Kourou. Much of the cost growth resulted from technical issues that extended manufacturing and testing of the spacecraft subsystems, notably the polishing of Gaia's 10 mirrors—including two large primary mirrors—and assembly and test of the focal plane, a 0.38-square-meter (4-sq.-ft.) camera comprising 106 charge-coupled devices (CCD), each of which is effectively a miniature camera.

More recently, a technical glitch that slipped the launch one month to Dec. 19 involved faulty transponder components (built by Thales Alenia Space of Italy) that generate timing signals for downlinking science data. ESA did not identify the in-orbit satellite with the faulty transponder component that prompted the agency to delay the mission one month, but said it would replace the parts prior to Gaia's launch as a precautionary measure.

Gaia is the second consecutive Soyuz launch from French Guiana to be delayed in 2013. O3b Networks postponed a planned late-September Soyuz launch of four communications satellites built by Thales Alenia Space due to a technical problem discovered on four similar O3b satellites launched earlier in 2013. The four spacecraft are now slated to launch in 2014.

 

Israel a step closer to the moon, with propulsion deal

The lightest and smallest craft to ever lift off and reach the moon could net Israel $30 million from Google, its sponsors say

avid Shamah – The Times of Israel

Israel's moonshot project is a lot closer to reality after the SpaceIL organization, which is developing the Israeli spacecraft that will journey to the moon in 2015, acquired this month the engine for the rocket that will blast Israel's lunar lander into space. The Israel-developed propulsion system, produced by Israel Aircraft Industries, cost several million dollars, SpaceIL said, and is "among the most critical components of the project," the organization added.

SpaceIL is the Israeli organization that is building a "blue and white" spacecraft to compete in Google's big Lunar X contest, which promises to award $30 million to a team that can land an unmanned, robotic craft on the moon. Once there, the craft will need to carry out several missions, such as taking high-definition video and beaming it back to earth, and exploring the surface of the moon by moving, or sending out a vehicle, that will move 500 meters along the moon's surface.

SpaceIL's mission, as the organization describes it, is to successfully build, launch into space, and land on the moon a space capsule, making Israel the fourth country in the world to achieve this. Over 250 volunteers are working on SpaceIL, and the project has numerous corporate and academic sponsors – most notably Israeli telecom giant Bezeq, which, besides helping with the funding, is providing optical fiber technology that will transmit the entire drama back to earth. The money, said SpaceIL, will be used largely to help fund scientific education in Israel.

SpaceIL will be competing against teams from all over the world, seeking to take home not only the prize, but the national glory that will come with being one of the select few (among them the USA, Russia, China, and Japan) to have landed a probe on the moon.

Israel's "secret sauce," said SpaceIL, will be its probe's lightness. The entire thing, including the propulsion system, will weigh less than 150 kilograms (330 pounds). The probe itself – the only part of the craft that will actually reach the moon – will weigh no more than 40 kilograms, with the rest taken up by the engines and fuel tanks (the fuel tanks and fuel weigh 90 kilograms). It's a long way to the moon, though – 384,000 kilometers – so in order to save on fuel and weight, the SpaceIL craft will hitch a ride with a commercial satellite rocket that will take it beyond the atmosphere, ejecting it after passing the earth's field of gravity. The organization is currently discussing several launch possibilities, it said.

The SpaceIL craft won't just be very light; it will be very small, as well. The probe will measure less than a meter long, making it the smallest probe ever to hit the lunar surface. Though small in volume, the probe will be rich in technology, with advanced cameras, computers, and recording equipment installed to record the adventure and transmit data back to earth. Its small size, the SpaceIL team hopes, will give Team Israel's probe a leg up on other competitors.

Commenting on the propulsion system deal, SpaceIL CEO Dr. Eran Privman said "the propulsion system, together with the computer system already acquired last June, has brought the reality of the SpaceIL probe closer than ever."

 

Mars Express Orbiter Buzzes Martian Moon Phobos

Ian O'Neill, Discovery

On Sunday, at 5:17 p.m. GMT (12:17 p.m. EST), Europe's Mars Express orbiter successfully completed a daring low-pass of Mars' largest moon Phobos.

In an effort to precisely measure the gravitational field of the moon, the 10 year-old mission was sent on a trajectory that took it only 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the dusty surface, the closest any spacecraft has ever come to the natural satellite.

At the time of flyby, Mars Express was transmitting a "continuous radio signal across 208 million km of space" to NASA's radio antennae near Madrid, Spain, wrote Daniel Scuka at ESA's European Space Operations Centre, Darmstadt, Germany, in a blog update. The 70 meter radio antenna is part of NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN), which precisely tracked the spacecraft's signal. Post-flyby, NASA's 70 meter Goldstone DSN antenna in the Mojave Desert, Calif., and ESA's 35 meter antenna at New Norcia in Australia continued to track the mission.

During the flyby, DSN operators reported "a slight effect in the Doppler residuals," meaning that, as expected, Phobos' gravity had accelerated Mars Express' orbital velocity very slightly. Through careful analysis of the Doppler shifting of the radio signal, Phobos' gravity can be measured, allowing scientists to discern its mass and density — the most precise measurement to date.

All focus was on the spacecraft's ability to send a continuous stream of data back to Earth, so close-up snapshots were not a possibility.

"In order to perform the Phobos flyby radio science measurements, the spacecraft needed to have its high gain antenna dish pointed at Earth for the entire duration of the flyby operations," said Scuka. "This meant that we were not able to conduct observations with any of the other instruments (which would need to be pointed at Mars)."

However, the operation allowed the spacecraft to beam back an extra 200 Gigabits of observational data, including imagery of Phobos during an earlier 500 kilometer pass of the moon.

The successful flyby marks the end of months of planning by the ESA team managing Mars Express that, as of last week, has been in Mars orbit for 10 years. This flyby opportunity will hopefully provide further clues to the origin of the knobbly 13.4 kilometer (8.3 mile) wide moon that orbits Mars only 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) from the planet's surface.

By precisely measuring the gravitational influence on a spacecraft during flyby, planetary scientists will better understand the moon's composition. During previous flybys, scientists calculated that the moon must be one-third empty space, which means the object may be a "rubble pile" — an agglomeration of smaller rocks hold together under a mutual gravity. But did the material come from a cataclysmic Mars impact? Or was Phobos, and its smaller satellite sibling Deimos, once an asteroid that got captured by Mars' gravity?

Those answers may not come until we can carry out a dedicated sample return mission of the moon's regolith, but the flyby will certainly aid our understanding of Phobos' internal structure.

 

Mock Mars Mission: Packing for the Red Planet

Elizabeth Howell, SPACE.com

OTTAWA, CANADA — I'll admit it: I've become that annoying friend and family member, just in time for the busy holiday season. While the people I know are preoccupied with Christmas and New Year's events, I'm making constant requests to borrow things from them.

"Can I nab your warm sleeping bag?" I said to a friend who then had to make a special trip to my place with her precious cargo in the car.

"Is it okay if I take your DSLR — and can you show me how to make videos with it?" I asked a long-suffering family member who, despite a punishing schedule, is always being harassed for tech support.

I'll have to think of ways to pay them back. Right now, though, I'm just too busy packing. I'm about to spend two weeks in the Utah desert on a simulated Mars mission, unable to buy even a toothbrush there to get me through the days. I, along with the rest of a University of North Dakota-led crew, will be onsite at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) starting Jan. 4.

Packing for Mars

The Mars Society has more than a decade of experience in running these missions, so they provide each crew member with a detailed packing list. The list includes amusing asides: clothing for 15 days should be okay for "much re-wearing," and I'll likely want pajamas to sleep in, as walking to the bathroom in the morning involves facing "a throng of crew members."

If you can imagine packing for a two-week trip in a cabin, that's essentially what we're doing in the Utah desert. The list includes standard items like clothing, toiletries, outdoor gear, a sleeping bag and a flashlight. Because we're doing science, however, there are other things to consider. Everyone needs to have a personal laptop. Scientists must also bring items such as GPS units, rock hammers and topographic maps.

We also have to take note of restricted items. Firearms and alcohol are absolute no-no's, and cologne isn't allowed, either, because some people have scent sensitivities. We are permitted to bring our own food onsite this season, so I'll likely bring some of my Christmas chocolate stash along. To share, of course.

No urine jars required

The list I'm reading today has changed quite a bit over the years. I'm supposed to bring hiking boots for simulated spacewalks, for example. Previous crews were allowed to use shared footwear, but that became a problem, MDRS Director Shannon Rupert told SPACE.com.

"For years and years we actually had boots that the crews would use when they went out, and we finally did away with them. It gets kind of disgusting to put your foot in someone else's boot," she said.

Fortunately for our crew, going to the bathroom is a pretty easy experience — just a standard flush toilet, nothing to worry about unless we put something unusual in there. Past crews had to bring their own jars and put urine in a funnel on the wall for a composting toilet. That item is now gone.

On Mars, "you wouldn't have to worry about where you're going to have to bury the compost," Rupert explained of the change. "A composting toilet is silly."

Personal items

I've limited myself to one suitcase for this trip, which means that there won't be a lot of space left over for personal items. I don't mind, however, because that's how it is in space. Like an astronaut preparing for a mission, I must make sure everything I lug from Ottawa to Utah is worth the weight and trouble.

As a Canadian, I want to honor our astronaut corps in a couple of ways. I'm bringing along a copy of Chris Hadfield's "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth" (Little, Brown and Company, 2013), which should also give me tips on how to behave in close quarters.

I also have a special "Canada" baseball cap that marks one of Canadian astronaut Steve MacLean's flights, STS-115 in 2006. I hope the red color will keep my head looking spiffy on those inevitable bad hair days; I'm only allowed to shower once, quickly, every two days due to restricted water on site.

Perhaps the most meaningful item will be a small keychain that says "Apollo 13" on one side and "Failure Is Not an Option" on the other, a quote from the film based on the mission. I was a young teenager the first time I saw that film, and it sparked my interest in space. Nearly 20 years later, I can't believe how that one movie eventually rocketed me to this simulated Mars mission.

 

Mars One Narrows List Of Wannabe Martians For 2025 Colony

A private company hoping to populate Mars has narrowed its applicant pool by 99.5 percent. Here's a by-the-numbers look at the remaining 1,058 applicants.

Kelsey D. Atherton – Popular Science

The number of Earthlings looking at a potential one-way ticket to Mars has just shrunk by 99.5 percent.

People started applying for a voyage to the red planet in April 2013 through Mars One, a Netherlands-based private venture that wants to land humans there by 2025. By the time the company stopped taking applications, more than 200,000 people had submitted one. Today, Mars One announced that it's made a short(er) list of 1,058 applicants.

Here's what the numbers tell us about Mars' potential future inhabitants:

55 percent of the new applicant pool is male and 45 percent is female. That's more masculine than the general population, but still substantially more gender balanced than U.S. Congress.

63 percent have a bachelor's degree or higher, while 3 percent of the total hold medical degrees (who wouldn't want a doctor on Mars?). Less than 7 percent of people on Earth in 2010 had college degrees, which means Mars may soon be the most educated planet in the solar system.

76 percent of applicants are employed, 15 percent are still in school, and 8 percent are unemployed. If surviving as a colonist on another planet counts as a job, expect Mars to have an employment rate of 100 percent.

43 percent of applicants come from the Americas, 27 percent from Europe, 21 percent from Asia, 5 percent from Africa, and 4 percent from Oceania. That hardly jibes with the distribution of the world population; if it did, 60 percent of Martians would be Asian and 14 percent would hail from the Americas. A closer match is the distribution of global wealth by nation, of which the Americas claim 35 percent.

107 countries are represented in the applicants and, at 28 percent of all those accepted into Mars One's second round, the United States has the largest pool of candidates.

34 percent of potential Martians are younger than 25, about 65 percent are between the ages of 26 and 55, and 2 percent are older than 56. In contrast, 40 percent of Earthlings are less than 25 years old and 17 percent older than 56.

The defining moment for Mars One will be selecting its crew (or crews) for a 2025 voyage, but the news does bring a private mission to the red planet one step closer to reality. A bigger step occurred earlier this month, when Mars One announced a contract with Lockheed Martin to craft a design concept for a robotic lander. Its goal: to find and prepare a landing site for the first human visitors to Mars.

END

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