The Big Space Exploration Thread

[Kintoy]

the Space Shuttle Enterprise at Intrepid Museum

[wjfox]

Voyager: Outward bound

Ed Stone has spent 36 years guiding the twin Voyager spacecraft through the Solar System. Next stop, interstellar space.

http://www.nature.com/news/voyager-o...-bound-1.13040

[kicaj]

From Space Station to Moon Base – Bigelow expands on inflatable ambitions




http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/...ble-ambitions/

[wjfox]

Huge Asteroid 1998 QE2 Sails By Earth on Friday

A massive asteroid nearly 2 miles wide will zip by Earth on Friday (May 31), in a cosmic event that has grabbed the attention of stargazers, scientists and even White House officials. The asteroid poses no threat of hitting Earth during the flyby, NASA officials assure.

http://www.space.com/21352-huge-aste...l?cmpid=514630

[Ulpia-Serdica]

This Machine Could Help Robots Stick The Landing On Other Worlds



Mission planners really hate it when space robots land off course. We’re certainly improving the odds of success these days, but one space agency has a fancy simulator up its sleeve that could make landings even more precise.

Shown above, this software and hardware (tested at the European Space Agency) so impressed French aerospace center ONERA that officials recently gave the lead researcher an award for the work.

“If I’m a tourist in Paris, I might look for directions to famous landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe or Notre Dame cathedral to help find my position on a map,” stated Jeff Delaune, the Ph.D. student performing the research.

“If the same process is repeated from space with enough surface landmarks seen by a camera, the eye of the spacecraft, it can then pretty accurately identify where it is by automatically comparing the visual information to maps we have onboard in the computer.”

Because landmarks close-up can look really different from far away, this system has a method to try and get around that problem.

The so-called ‘Landing with Inertial and Optical Navigation’ (LION) system takes the real-time images generated by the spacecraft’s camera and compares it to maps from previous missions, as well as 3-D digital models of the surface.

LION can take into account the relative size of every point it sees, whether it’s a huge crater or a tiny boulder.

At ESA’s control hardware laboratory in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, officials tested the system with a high-res map of the moon.

Though this is just a test and there is still a ways to go before this system is space-ready, ESA said simulated positional accuracy was better than 164 feet at 1.86 miles in altitude (or 50 meters at three kilometers in altitude.)
Oh, and while it’s only been tested with simulated moon terrain so far, it’s possible the same system could help a robot land on an asteroid, or Mars, ESA adds.

No word on when the system will first hitch an interplanetary ride, but Delaune is working to apply the research to terrestrial matters such as unmanned aerial vehicles.

SOURCE: http://www.universetoday.com/102503/...#ixzz2UpsokZLd

[wjfox]

Pebbly Rocks Testify to Old Streambed on Mars

May 30, 2013

NASA's Curiosity rover found evidence for an ancient, flowing stream on Mars at a few sites, including the rock outcrop pictured here, which the science team has named "Hottah" after Hottah Lake in Canada's Northwest Territories. It may look like a broken sidewalk, but this geological feature on Mars is actually exposed bedrock made up of smaller fragments cemented together, or what geologists call a sedimentary conglomerate. Scientists theorize that the bedrock was disrupted in the past, giving it the titled angle, most likely via impacts from meteorites. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-181

[kicaj]

The fourth European Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is undergoing final processing at Kourou in French Guiana ahead of its launch to the International Space Station on June 5th.

[wjfox]

Triple planetary conjunction of Mercury, Venus and Jupiter, taken from Haleakala Summit on Maui, Hawaii. 26 May, 2013.

Credit: Mike Dillinger

[Ulpia-Serdica]

LARES, a disco ball in space, measures relativity



A "disco ball" orbiting Earth could help researchers test one important aspect of general relativity called rotational frame-dragging. The Itaian Space Agency (ASI) is trying to measure this phenomenon using the Laser Relativity Satellite (LARES). This effect, also called the Lense-Thirring effect, was missed by its much more expensive NASA predecessor nine years ago.

The Italian-made satellite, operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) is designed to measure this odd effect, predicted by Albert Einstein. This pulling on space-time is created by large rotating bodies such as the Earth. The effect is predicted to affect smaller bodies rotating next to a planet or star. The frame-dragging will cause the rotating object to begin to precess. This behavior is like a child's top as it winds down. At first, the top stands straight up, but as it loses energy, the vertical axis of the top begins to travel in an ever-widening circle before falling over.

Rotational frame-dragging is an effect that is extremely hard to measure. The difference in precession between an object exhibiting frame-dragging and one free of the effect is only one part in a few trillion. But, by bouncing lasers off the reflectors on the satellite, and carefully measuring how the spacecraft moves,researchers at the ASI believe they will see evidence of frame-dragging. However, these effects could be swamped out by other subtle effects, which researchers have to eliminate from their calculations. To do this, Measurements from the spacecraft are combined with those from the LAGEO and LAGEO 2 satellites, two other reflective satellites launched earlier by Italy.

Antonio Paolozzi from the University of Rome La Sapienza and Ignazio Ciufolini of the University of Salento are two of the researchers who have been studying data from the LARES experiments.

"By adding the LARES orbital data, it will be possible to eliminate... the effects of [these perturbations], thus allowing the achievement of about 1% accuracy," Paolozzi and Ciufolini said.

Launched in early 2012, LARES is made of tungsten, and is covered in 92 reflectors, but has no moving parts. It weighs about 880 pounds, but is only about the size of a soccer ball. The small size and significant weight make it the densest known object in orbit anywhere in the solar system, and it is the first object made of tungsten placed into orbit.

In order to measure rotational frame-dragging, NASA launched the Gravity Probe B, a $750 million dollar test facility into space in 2004. The spacecraft included four gyroscopes covered in superconducting materials. Procession of the gyroscopes was measured through the movement of electrons through the system. Faults in the equipment lowered the accuracy of the measurements from 99 percent to just 80 percent. LARES is predicted to produce readings at least ten times more accurate than the actual results achieved with Gravity Probe B nine years ago.

SOURCE: http://www.itechpost.com/articles/10...relativity.htm

[wjfox]

"The sun glints over Earth's horizon as seen by one of the Expedition 36 crew members aboard the International Space Station
while floating above the Midwestern United States on May 21, 2013."

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

Colossal Kasei Valles

This beautiful space wallpaper is a mosaic of Kasei Valles, comprising 67 images taken with the High Resolution Stereo Camera
on ESA’s Mars Express. This image was released June 6, 2013. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

http://www.space.com/21517-kasei-val...l?cmpid=514630

[kicaj]

[Diggerdog]

News
NASA's new astronauts could one day blast off to Mars
Four women, four men chosen out of 6,100 applicants to go to asteroid, space station

By Sharon Gaudin
June 17, 2013 05:24 PM ET
2 CommentsinShare
Computerworld - After a year and a half of culling through 6,100 applicants, NASA has chosen four men and four women to train to become astronauts and potentially travel to an asteroid or even Mars.

One of the astronaut trainees is a physicist and chief technology officer.

"These new space explorers asked to join NASA because they know we're doing big, bold things here -- developing missions to go farther into space than ever before," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, in a written statementI. "They're excited about the science we're doing on the International Space Station and our plan to launch from U.S. soil to there on spacecraft built by American companies. And they're ready to help lead the first human mission to an asteroid and then on to Mars."

The space agency reported that the eight-member 2013 astronaut candidate class comes from the second largest number of applications NASA has ever received. The group will receive technical training at space centers around the world to prepare for missions to low-Earth orbit, an asteroid and Mars.

In 2004, President George W. Bush called on NASA to send humans back to the moon by 2020 in a move that he said would prepare the space agency for a manned-mission to Mars.

More recently, President Barack Obama formulated a new plan that calls on NASA to build next-generation heavy-lift engines and robotics technology for use in space travel.

In April, scientists at the University of Washington reported they are working on a rocket that they say could enable astronauts to reach Mars in just 30 days. Using current technology, a round-trip human mission to Mars would take more than four years.

As soon as 2016, NASA plans to send a robotic spacecraft - still unmanned - to an asteroid. The $800 million effort will be the first U.S. mission to carry asteroid samples back to Earth.

"This year we have selected eight highly qualified individuals who have demonstrated impressive strengths academically, operationally, and physically" said Janet Kavandi, director of Flight Crew Operations at Johnson Space Center, in a statement. "They have diverse backgrounds and skill sets that will contribute greatly to the existing astronaut corps. Based on their incredible experiences to date, I have every confidence that they will apply their combined expertise and talents to achieve great things for NASA and this country in the pursuit of human exploration."

The astronaut candidates will begin training at Johnson Space Center in Houston this August. They are:

Josh A. Cassada, 39, who is originally from White Bear Lake, Minn. Cassada is a former naval aviator who is a physicist by training. Today he serves as co-founder and Chief Technology Officer for Quantum Opus, which focuses on quantum optics research.
Victor J. Glover, 37, of Pomona, Calif. and Prosper, Texas, a Lt. Commander with the U.S. Navy. He currently serves as a Navy Legislative Fellow in the U.S. Congress.
Tyler N. Hague, 37, of Hoxie, Kan., who is a Lt. Colonel with the U.S. Air Force. Hague is supporting the Department of Defense as deputy chief of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization.
Christina M. Hammock, 34, of Jacksonville, N.C., who serves as National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Station Chief in American Samoa.
Nicole Aunapu Mann, 35, from Penngrove, Calif., who is a Major in the U.S. Marine Corps. Mann is an F/A 18 pilot, currently serving as an Integrated Product Team Lead at the U.S. Naval Air Station.
Anne C. McClain, 34, originally from Spokane, Wash., who is a Major with the U.S. Army. She is an OH-58 helicopter pilot, and a recent graduate of U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at Naval Air Station.
Jessica U. Meir, Ph.D., 35, who is from Caribou, Maine. She is an Assistant Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston.
Andrew R. Morgan, an M.D., 37, from New Castle, Penn., who is a Major with the U.S. Army. He has experience as an emergency physician and flight surgeon for the Army special operations community, and currently is completing a sports medicine fellowship.
This article, NASAs new astronauts could one day blast off to Mars, was originally published at Computerworld.com.

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/artic...st_off_to_Mars