The Big Space Exploration Thread

[AcesHigh]

fantastic Neil de Grasse Tyson interview

[Cosmin]

Yes, I saw it a few months ago and I wish it went on and on. Neil de Grasse Tyson never ceases to inspire me.

[Ulpia-Serdica]

[Ulpia-Serdica]

NASA and ESA to announce new collaboration to send astronauts beyond Earth orbit



NASA and ESA will brief media at 17:30 CET on Wednesday 16 January on the details for ESA to provide a service module for the first Orion spacecraft mission in 2017. European media are invited to watch the event and can ask questions.

Orion will be the most advanced spacecraft ever designed and carry astronauts farther into space than ever before. ESA’s service module will be based on the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). Sitting directly below Orion’s crew capsule, it will provide propulsion, power, thermal control, as well as supplying water and atmosphere for the astronauts in the habitable module.

Automated Transfer Vehicles have been resupplying the International Space Station since 2008. The fourth in the series, ATVAlbert Einstein, is being readied for launch this year from Kourou, French Guiana.

The agreement expands on the solid partnership developed through the International Space Station programme and other activities and continues international collaboration for human exploration further into our Solar System.

Participants to the news conference include:

-- William H. Gerstenmaier, NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations

-- Thomas Reiter, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight and Operations

-- Mark Geyer, NASA Orion Program Manager

-- Bernardo Patti, ESA Manager of International Space Station Operations

To participate via the phone, reporters must contact the Johnson newsroom at +1.281.483.5111 no later than 10:15 a.m. the day of the briefing. Media will not be able to connect after the briefing has started.

The press conference can be viewed via NASA TV.

http://www.esa.int/For_Media/Latest_...nd_Earth_orbit

[Zool]

Biggest Thing in Universe Found—Defies Scientific Theory

Quasar cluster is "challenge to our current understanding," astronomer says. Astronomers have discovered a structure in the universe so large that modern cosmological theory says it should not exist, a new study says.

Using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, an international team of researchers has discovered a record-breaking cluster of quasars—young active galaxies—stretching 4 billion light-years across.

"This discovery was very much a surprise, since it does break the cosmological record as the largest structure in the known universe," said study leader Roger Clowes, an astronomer at University of Central Lancashire in England.

For comparison, our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is just a hundred thousand light-years across, while the local supercluster of galaxies in which it's located, the Virgo Cluster, is only a hundred million light-years wide.



http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...ace-evolution/

[ramanujann]

Wow, huge cluster of quasars! Very cool news.
By the way, a quasar is a compact region in the center of a massive galaxy surrounding its central supermassive black hole. Its size is 10–10,000 times the Schwarzschild radius of the black hole. The quasar is powered by an accretion disc around the black hole. -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasar

[wjfox]

The Final Video of NASA’s Twin Spacecraft Before Crashing On the Moon

http://gizmodo.com/5975005/watch-nas...3jevHc.twitter

[Ulpia-Serdica]

Trial Run Mission Will Make Sure Asteroid Deflection Method Really Works

ESA wants your help to guide development of an international asteroid mission



AIDA Mission Concept The US-European Asteroid Impact and Deflection mission, or AIDA, would send two small spacecraft to intercept a binary asteroid. The first Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft will collide with the smaller of the two asteroids. Meanwhile, the Asteroid Impact Monitor (AIM) craft will survey these bodies in detail, before and after the collision. The impact should change the pace at which the objects spin around each other, observable from Earth. But AIM’s close-up view will ‘ground-truth’ such observations.

We may be safe from killer asteroid Apophis, but plenty of other near-Earth asteroids could pose a threat sooner or later. Sure, humans could send up a probe or a space sail in a desperate attempt to deflect it--but what if that mission fails? We had better start testing now, so we’re sure this type of Hollywood scheme actually works. Enter the AIDA mission

The European Space Agency and Johns Hopkins University are working together on a two-part asteroid interception and deflection mission, but they need help to refine it. ESA wants your research ideas for ground- and space-based studies that will improve the Asteroid Impact and Deflection mission, or AIDA.

The first spacecraft, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, would smash into the smaller of the two space rocks, which should change the pace at which it spins relative to its companion. This could change its direction and trajectory, too--that would be the entire goal if such a space rock threatened Earth. To see how well it works, a second spacecraft, the Asteroid Impact Monitor, would watch from a nearby post. Astronomers on Earth should be able to notice changes in the asteroids’ relative motion, but AIM’s close viewing spot will ground-truth those observations, as ESA explains.

It’s a two-part mission with two separate spacecraft, which would fly up to intercept a binary asteroid. The goal is to see how the objects’ relative spin changes, so you need a binary asteroid or one with a small moon. Several asteroids have mini-moons orbiting them.

Having two independent satellites increases the odds of mission success, because both can work without the other. But if they both work as planned, astronomers will get even better data, said Andrés Gálvez, ESA AIDA study manager. “The vast amounts of data coming from the joint mission should help to validate various theories, such as our impact modeling,” he said. That would ensure a deflection mission could really work--which will be good to know if and when a menacing space rock like Apophis does set its sights on Earth.

You can learn more about AIDA, and send some input to ESA, by clicking here.

http://www.popsci.com/science/articl...t-really-works

[Ulpia-Serdica]

Europe and US agree details for Orion astronaut spacecraft

The US and Europe have cemented their plan to work together on the Americans' next-generation capsule system to take humans beyond Earth.

The Orion vehicle is being built to carry astronauts to the Moon, asteroids and Mars, but it will need a means to propel itself through space.

Europe has now formally agreed to provide this technology.

Space agency executives have just signed an "implementing agreement" to cover the legal aspects of the work.

The first flight of Orion with its European-built "service module" will take place in 2017.

full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21044408

[Abinash89]

India to Launch Mission to Mars in 2013
India is set to launch an unmanned mission to Mars next year, the country's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced this week.

The Mars Orbiter Mission will mark India's first mission aimed at the Red Planet and has been approved by India's Cabinet, Singh said during a speech Wednesday (Aug. 15) to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the country's independence from the British.

"Under this mission, our spaceship will go near Mars and collect important scientific information," Singh said, according to an official transcript. "This spaceship to Mars will be a huge step for us in the area of science and technology."

The Mars mission is slated to launch in November 2013 and cost about 4.5 billion rupee ($82 million), according to the Associated Press.

India's Mars mission announcement comes on the heels of the landing of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, which touched down on the Red Planet on Aug. 5. The $2.5 billion Curiosity rover weighs a ton and is the size of a Mini Cooper car. NASA expects the rover to spend at least two years exploring its landing site, Gale Crater, to determine if the region could have ever supported microbial life.

India has been working to expand its space program in stages and successfully launched an unmanned orbiter to the moon in 2008. That spacecraft, called Chandrayaan-1, was instrumental in proving that water ice exists on the lunar surface.

The India Space Research Organisation, the country's space agency, is also developing the follow-up moon mission Chandrayaan-2, which is currently expected to launch in 2013 as well. The new mission is expected to include a lunar orbiter, like the Chandrayaan-1 flight, as well as a robotic lander and rover to explore the moon's surface.

India is also developing its own human spaceflight program and hopes to launch the nation's first manned spaceflight in 2015.
source:http://www.space.com/17159-india-mars-mission-2013.html

[Abinash89]

more info
Updates on ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission: five instruments to be delivered in March

Several news articles appeared in Indian media today about the upcoming launch of ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission. It's the first time I've seen such detailed information about the spacecraft. There were two distinct articles appearing across numerous media outlets, so it must be a wire story or perhaps even an ISRO press release; I'm not sure how these things work in India. There isn't a release posted on ISRO's website, as far as I can find. Here's a summary of those, one printed in the Deccan Chronicle, Economic Times, Indian Express, and elsewhere, and the other posted at Parda Phash, IBN live, and other places.

The information comes out during the 100th Indian Science Congress, taking place this week in Kolkata.

Spacecraft facts:
Its main engine generates 440 Newtons of thrust.
Launch mass: 1350 kg.
It bears a single solar panel, 1.4 by 1.8 meters, producing 750W at Mars. [Note: This doesn't jibe with the single image that I have managed to find of the orbiter, posted below; that one appears to have a three-section panel, with each section possibly 1.4 by 1.8 meters. I can't explain the discrepancy.]
For attitude control it has four reaction wheels, eight 22-Newton thrusters.
Those are mostly pretty similar to Chandrayaan-1, except for the size of the solar panel. Chandrayaan-1 had a single 2.15-by-1.8-meter panel that generated 750W at the Moon. My guess is that the diagram below is correct and that the Mars spacecraft has a single solar array consisting of three panels 1.4 by 1.8 meters each, which would, together, manage to produce similar power at Mars that the single, larger panel did at the Moon.
Five instruments have been selected, including:
A color camera
A Thermal Infrared Imaging System
A Lyman-alpha photometer
An Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer
A Methane Sensor
The engineering model is complete, and the flight model should be completed in March.
ISRO expects instruments to be delivered in March for integration beginning in April.
Launch to Earth orbit will take place "some time in October."
The spacecraft will depart Earth orbit on November 26 and arrive at Mars on September 22, 2014.
The mission does not yet have a formal name ("Mangalyaan" is not it -- as far as I can tell, that name was made up by newspapers needing a name and following the "Chandrayaan" convention). For lack of a better one, though, I'll not change it in my previous posts until we find out what the formal name is going to be.

Jitendra Nath Goswami, director of ISRO's Physical Research Laboratory, is quoted as saying: "We are trying hard and by mid-October we are expecting to launch the Mars mission." And: "The mission has a very specific science objective as we want to study the atmosphere of Mars. This mission will explore things which have not been done previously by other countries." And: "The previous missions to Mars have shown that there was water on the planet. We would want to know how and why the planet lost water and carbon dioxide."

Although these goals sound similar to those of NASA's MAVEN, the instrument package is more general than MAVEN's -- color imaging, nighttime thermal infrared, and so on. Only the Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer seems to overlap with MAVEN. In any case, it's my impression that science is only a secondary goal for this mission. The primary goals are engineering ones: simply to succeed at launching a spacecraft on an Earth-to-Mars transfer orbit, successfully navigate it to Mars, successfully enter orbit at Mars, and operate it there at all would be major achievements for India, regardless of any scientific data return.

source:http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...rs-update.html

[mopc]

Easy target for the Galactic Ghoul! Just kidding kudos to India.

[Abinash89]

No it's not an easy target.That's why it has taken so much of time(India is no USA you know). Hope it becomes successful!..

[Ulpia-Serdica]

Here is what the Orion spacecraft will look like

[VelesHomais]

Curious, I did not know that ESA is going to be developing the service module. The Orion is not very revolutionary, but that is precisely why it's going to be a successful work horse for decades to come.

[kicaj]

http://www.8newsnow.com/category/282...clipId=8198764

[Ulpia-Serdica]

This animation shows NASA's Orion spacecraft as it will appear on its Exploration Mission-1 in 2017, complete with a service module to be provided by the European Space Agency. After Orion blasts off atop a Space Launch System rocket, the ESA-provided service module will fuel and propel the capsule on its journey through space. Exploration Mission-1 in 2017 will be the first mission to incorporate both the Orion vehicle and NASA's new Space Launch System. It will follow the upcoming Exploration Flight Test-1 in 2014, in which an uncrewed Orion will launch atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket and fly 3,600 miles above Earth's surface, farther than a human spacecraft has gone in 40 years.

[VelesHomais]

In terms of manned exploration we're finally moving forward... to where we were 40 years ago

[kicaj]

loks like X wing from star wars

[ramanujann]

NASA Mars Rover Preparing to Drill Into First Martian Rock

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is driving toward a flat rock with pale veins that may hold clues to a wet history on the Red Planet. If the rock meets rover engineers' approval when Curiosity rolls up to it in coming days, it will become the first to be drilled for a sample during the Mars Science Laboratory mission.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0116092321.htm