In this artist concept provided by NASA, the MAVEN spacecraft approaches Mars on a mission to study its upper atmosphere. It arrived on Sunday Sept. 21, 2014. MAVEN's 442 million mile journey from Earth culminated in a dramatic engine burn, pulling the spacecraft into an elliptical orbit. The Maven mission is designed to simply orbit the planet, not land. Credit: AP Photo/NASA
NASA's Maven spacecraft arrived at Mars late Sunday after a 442 million-mile (711 million kilometer) journey that began nearly a year ago.
The robotic explorer fired its brakes and successfully slipped into orbit around the red planet, officials confirmed.
"This is such an incredible night," said John Grunsfeld, NASA's chief for science missions.
Members of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) team celebrate at the Lockheed Martin operations center in Littleton, Colorado, Sunday night, after getting confirmation that the spacecraft entered Mars' orbit.
Now the real work begins for the $671 million mission, the first dedicated to studying Mars' upper atmosphere.
Flight controllers in Colorado will spend the next six weeks adjusting Maven's altitude and checking its science instruments.
Then Maven will start probing the upper atmosphere of Mars. The spacecraft will conduct its observations from orbit; it's not meant to land.
Scientists believe the Martian atmosphere holds clues as to how Earth's neighbor went from being warm and wet billions of years ago to cold and dry.
That early wet world may have harbored microbial life, a tantalizing question yet to be answered.
NASA launched Maven last November from Cape Canaveral, the 10th U.S. mission sent to orbit the red planet.
Three earlier ones failed, and until the official word came of success late Sunday night, the entire team was on edge.
"I don't have any fingernails any more, but we've made it," said Colleen Hartman, deputy director for science at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "It's incredible."
The spacecraft was clocking more than 10,000 mph (16,000 kph) when it hit the brakes for the so-called orbital insertion, a half-hour process.
The world had to wait 12 minutes to learn the outcome, once it occurred, because of the lag in spacecraft signals given the 138 million miles (222 million kilometers) between the two planets on Sunday.
Nasa Mars Rover Curiosity arrives at Murray Formation. Credit: NASA.
This image shows the old and new routes of NASA's Mars Curiosity rover and is composed of color strips taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This new route provides excellent access to many features in the Murray Formation and it will eventually pass by the Murray Formation's namesake, Murray Buttes, previously considered to be the entry point to Mt. Sharp. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has reached the Red Planet's Mount Sharp, a Mount-Rainier-size mountain at the center of the vast Gale Crater and the rover mission's long-term prime destination.
"Curiosity now will begin a new chapter from an already outstanding introduction to the world," said Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
"After a historic and innovative landing along with its successful science discoveries, the scientific sequel is upon us."
Curiosity's trek up the mountain will begin with an examination of the mountain's lower slopes.
The rover is starting this process at an entry point near an outcrop called Pahrump Hills, rather than continuing on to the previously-planned, further entry point known as Murray Buttes.
Both entry points lay along a boundary where the southern base layer of the mountain meets crater-floor deposits washed down from the crater's northern rim.
"It has been a long but historic journey to this Martian mountain," said Curiosity Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
"The nature of the terrain at Pahrump Hills and just beyond it is a better place than Murray Buttes to learn about the significance of this contact. The exposures at the contact are better due to greater topographic relief."
The decision to head uphill sooner, instead of continuing to Murray Buttes, also draws from improved understanding of the region's geography provided by the rover's examinations of several outcrops during the past year.
Curiosity currently is positioned at the base of the mountain along a pale, distinctive geological feature called the Murray formation.
Compared to neighbouring crater-floor terrain, the rock of the Murray formation is softer and does not preserve impact scars, as well. As viewed from orbit, it is not as well-layered as other units at the base of Mount Sharp.
Curiosity made its first close-up study last month of two Murray formation outcrops, both revealing notable differences from the terrain explored by Curiosity during the past year.
The first outcrop, called Bonanza King, proved too unstable for drilling, but was examined by the rover's instruments and determined to have high silicon content.
A second outcrop, examined with the rover's telephoto Mast Camera (MastCam), revealed a fine-grained, platy surface laced with sulfate-filled veins.
While some of these terrain differences are not apparent in observations made by NASA's Mars orbiters, the rover team still relies heavily on images taken by the agency's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to plan Curiosity's travel routes and locations for study.
For example, MRO images helped the rover team locate mesas that are over 60 feet (18 meters) tall in an area of terrain shortly beyond Pahrump Hills, which reveal an exposure of the Murray formation uphill and toward the south.
The team plans to use Curiosity's drill to acquire a sample from this site for analysis by instruments inside the rover.
The site lies at the southern end of a valley Curiosity will enter this week from the north.
This portion of a color mosaic taken by NASA's Mars Curiosity rover shows strata exposed along the margins of the valleys in the "Pahrump Hills" region on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Though this valley has a sandy floor the length of two football fields, the team expects it will be an easier trek than the sandy-floored Hidden Valley, where last month Curiosity's wheels slipped too much for safe crossing.
Curiosity reached its current location after its route was modified earlier this year in response to excessive wheel wear.
In late 2013, the team realized a region of Martian terrain littered with sharp, embedded rocks was poking holes in four of the rover's six wheels.
This damage accelerated the rate of wear and tear beyond that for which the rover team had planned. In response, the team altered the rover's route to a milder terrain, bringing the rover farther south, toward the base of Mount Sharp.
"The wheels issue contributed to taking the rover farther south sooner than planned, but it is not a factor in the science-driven decision to start ascending here rather than continuing to Murray Buttes first," said Jennifer Trosper, Curiosity Deputy Project Manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
"We have been driving hard for many months to reach the entry point to Mount Sharp," Trosper said.
"Now that we've made it, we'll be adjusting the operations style from a priority on driving to a priority on conducting the investigations needed at each layer of the mountain."
After landing inside Gale Crater in August 2012, Curiosity fulfilled in its first year of operations its major science goal of determining whether Mars ever offered environmental conditions favourable for microbial life.
Clay-bearing sedimentary rocks on the crater floor, in an area called Yellowknife Bay, yielded evidence of a lakebed environment billions of years ago that offered fresh water, all of the key elemental ingredients for life, and a chemical source of energy for microbes.
After a decade-long journey chasing its target, ESA’s Rosetta has today become the first spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet, opening a new chapter in Solar System exploration.
Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko and Rosetta now lie 405 million kilometres from Earth, about half way between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars, rushing towards the inner Solar System at nearly 55 000 kilometres per hour.
The comet is in an elliptical 6.5-year orbit that takes it from beyond Jupiter at its furthest point, to between the orbits of Mars and Earth at its closest to the Sun.
Rosetta will accompany it for over a year as they swing around the Sun and back out towards Jupiter again.
A truck hauls NASA's TDRS-L satellite to the Astrotech facility in Titusville for launch processing. The TDRS is the latest spacecraft destined for the agency's constellation of communications satellites that allows nearly continuous contact with orbiting spacecraft ranging from the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope to the array of scientific observatories. Credit: NASA/Charisse Nahser
As a vital information pipeline for space-based research and exploration, TDRS fulfills NASA's broadest communication demands.
For more than 30 years, the TDRS fleet has provided critical communication support to NASA's human spaceflight endeavors that began during the space shuttle era and continues with support of the International Space Station.
It also provides communications support to an array of science missions, as well as several launch vehicles.
"The launch of TDRS-L ensures continuity of services for the many missions that rely on the system every day," said Jeffrey Gramling, TDRS project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
TDRS-L is the second of three replenishment satellites for the TDRS constellation, which currently consists of eight spacecraft. TDRS-K was launched in January 2013. The last of the three, TDRS-M, is on track to be ready for launch as early as 2015.
Of the 11 TDRS satellites launched, eight still are operational. Four of those already are beyond their design life. Two have been retired. One was lost in a space shuttle accident.
The MS Turanor PlanetSolar is a scientific research platform for the University of Geneva and has been enjoying a great deal of interest from around the world during its groundbreaking mission to explore the intricacies of the Gulf Stream and other facets of our changing climate.
The innovative design of the craft means that it can generate up to 480kWh from over 800 solar panels and boasts a top speed of 14 knots. The vessel carries an array of different instruments, both inside and out, used for monitoring every facet of the climate during its voyage. Data gathered is still being processed, but it is hoped to shed further light on climatic changes going on around the world.
The dual-hull of the Turanor PlanetSolar is over 100 feet long and gets through the water after converting the sun's rays via two electric motors. A huge bank of lithium-ion batteries are enclosed in each of the hull sections.
The catamaran has enjoyed a high profile so far, having successfully completed its first trip around the world under solar power, between September 2010 and May 2012. The first time around, the Turanor PlanetSolar made it across the Atlantic in 26 days, a record-breaking time which it has since trimmed down to 22 days, gaining it an entry into the Guinness World record books.
A crane lifts NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility on Aug. 3, 2013, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft was flown to Kennedy Space Center for launch processing from Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado near the Lockheed Martin facility in Littleton, Colo., where it was built. MAVEN is to lift off on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket in November, 2013 to begin a 10-month voyage to Mars. It is the first mission dedicated to studying Mars' upper atmosphere and scientists hope to find traces of the ancient environment thought to have existed there. Image Credit: NASA/Tim Jacobs
LADEE is a robotic mission that will orbit the moon to gather detailed information about the lunar atmosphere, conditions near the surface and environmental influences on lunar dust.
A thorough understanding of these characteristics will address long-standing unknowns, and help scientists understand other planetary bodies as well.
LADEE has three science instruments and one technology demonstration onboard.
LADEE's scheduled Sep. 5, 2013, launch will mark several firsts. It will be;
the first deep space mission to launch from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility.
NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington funds the LADEE mission, a cooperative effort led by NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Ames is responsible for managing the mission, building the spacecraft and performing mission operations.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., is responsible for managing the science instruments and technology demonstration payload, and the science operations center.
Wallops is responsible for launch vehicle integration, launch services, and launch range operations.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., manages LADEE within the Lunar Quest Program Office.
A Soyuz spacecraft carrying the Expedition 36/37 crew to the International Space Station is seen in station cameras just before docking on May 28, 2013. CREDIT: NASA TV
An international trio of astronauts has just become the newest residents of a space station in orbit after a record-setting trip.
Five hours and 40 minutes after a successful Soyuz rocket launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan earlier today (May 28), Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA's Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency docked their Soyuz spacecraft at the International Space Station at 10:10 p.m. EDT (0210 May 29 GMT).
The new crew will remain on the space station for the next six months.
"I've never felt better in my life," Yurchikhin said just after the Soyuz docked at the station in record time while sailing high above the South Pacific.
You can watch live coverage of the hatch opening on NASA TV starting at 11:30 p.m. EDT (0330 May 29 GMT), with hatch opening scheduled for 11:55 p.m. EDT (0355 May 29 GMT).
Image above: Astronaut Don Pettit watches as a technician works on the Orion crew module inside the Operations and Checkout Building high bay at Kennedy Space Center on March 21. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis
“Arrival of the final reaction control system pod marks a significant milestone as we prepare NASA’s Orion crew module for its first flight test,” said Glenn Chinn, the deputy manager of the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Program in Kennedy’s Orion Production Operations Office.
“The pods will provide the critical maneuvers necessary for Orion’s re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.”
The first set of pods arrived at Kennedy on Feb. 18, with subsequent pods arriving March 11, and April 5 and 19.
Image above: A technician works on a reaction control system pod at the Aerojet facility in Redmond, Wash. The pod is one of eight that will be installed on the Orion crew module for Exploration Flight Test-1 and provide the critical maneuvers necessary for re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.” Photo courtesy of Aerojet
The right-roll thruster pod with two rocket engines was the last to arrive, and joined the other seven pods already in the facility.
Included in the group are two pitch-up thruster pods with a single rocket engine; two pitch-down thruster pods, each with a single rocket engine; two right- and left-yaw pods, each with a single rocket engine, and a left roll thruster pod with two rocket engines.
Before the pods were delivered to Kennedy, Aerojet put each of them through a series of tests, including proof pressure and leak, engine vibration, rocket engine hot fire acceptance and electrical functional testing.
Lockheed Martin will unpack and visually inspect all of the pods. Then technicians will add short propellant line segments and line brackets to each.
Beginning in June, the pods will undergo additional proof pressure and leak testing, valve leak testing and rocket engine functional testing.
Aerojet will support processing activities that involve the rocket engine pods with procedure reviews, and on-site engineering and assembly support during installation and testing on the crew module.
Aerojet Program Director for Human Space, Sam Wiley, said he can’t wait for the RCS pods to be installed onto the crew module.
“We put our heart into our products and the installation work will wrap up more than three years of design and development activities,” Wiley said. “We’re ready to support EFT-1 for flight.”
The pods and their engines will be installed in various locations on the Orion crew module.
SpaceX's unmanned cargo freighter Dragon arrived at the International Space Station this morning carrying supplies for the orbiting outpost.
The arrival had been delayed from yesterday after a temporary glitch with the vehicle's thrusters.
Dragon was captured by the station's robotic arm, Canadarm2 at 9.31 GMT. The robotic arm was operated by Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford with assistance from flight engineers Tom Marshburn and Chris Hadfield.
Commander Ford said: "As they say, it’s not where you start, but where you finish that counts, and you guys really finished this one on the mark. You’re aboard, and we’ve got lots of science on there to bring aboard to get done."
The final phase of the vehicle's arrival is for Mission Control to remotely operate the station's robotic arm to guide the capsule to its port on the Earth-facing side of the Harmony module.
The berthing mechanism will ensure the craft is properly attached and sealed to its port.
An oversized semi-trailer truck carrying NASA's Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) has arrived at its launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in preparation for launch. This NASA and U.S. Geological Survey mission will continue a 40-year record of measuring change on the planet from space.
LDCM is the eighth satellite in the Landsat series, which began in 1972. It will extend and expand global land observations that are critical in many sectors, including energy and water management, forest monitoring, human and environmental health, urban planning, disaster recovery and agriculture.
Following final tests, the LDCM satellite will be attached to an Atlas V rocket and launched into space Feb. 11, 2013. Built and tested by Orbital Sciences Corp., LDCM left their Gilbert, Ariz., facility on Dec. 17.
"LDCM builds on and strengthens a key American resource: a decades-long, unbroken Landsat-gathered record of our planet's natural resources, particularly its food, water and forests," said Jim Irons, Landsat project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
"Both of these instruments have evolutionary advances that make them the most advanced Landsat instruments to date and are designed to improve performance and reliability to improve observations of the global land surface," said Ken Schwer, LDCM project manager at NASA Goddard.
OLI will continue observations in the visible, near infrared, and shortwave infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum and includes two new spectral bands, one of which is designed to support monitoring of coastal waters and the other to detect previously hard to see cirrus clouds that can otherwise unknowingly impact the signal from the Earth's surface in the other spectral bands.
TIRS will collect data in two thermal bands and will thus be able to measure the temperature of the Earth's surface, a measurement that's vital to monitoring water consumption, especially in the arid western United States.
Looking down on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) inside the Large Space Simulator in March 2010
One of the most exciting scientific instruments ever built, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer will arrive at the Kennedy Space Center.
The quest for discovering the composition of the Universe is about to take a step further on the International Space Station (ISS).
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is not only the largest scientific instrument to be installed on the Station, and the largest cryogenically cooled superconducting magnet ever used in orbit. It will be delivered to the ISS by NASA's Space Shuttle.
During the unloading of AMS, following arrival at the Space Shuttle Landing Facility, media will have the opportunity to have a look at the hardware and talk to AMS scientists and managers.
Simonetta Di Pippo, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight, and Prof. Sam Ting, the experiment's leader from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will be available for interviews.
Understanding our Universe AMS will help us to understand the origin and structure of the Universe by searching for signs of antimatter and dark matter.
As a byproduct, AMS will also gather a host of information on stars and galaxies millions of light years from our home Galaxy.
AMS was built mostly by institutes in Italy, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland, together with the participation of China, Russia, Taiwan and US. In all, the experiment's team consists of 56 institutes from 16 countries.
Envisat captures a crescent-shaped string of plankton in the North Sea weaving through the Scandinavian region.
Norway (left) and Sweden (right), part of the Scandinavian Peninsula, are visible at the top, and Denmark is at bottom right.
The emerald green lake seen in Sweden is Vänern, the country’s largest.
The green water around Denmark is due to sediments being transported in the water. Also visible (image centre) is Norway’s second largest fjord, Hardangerfjord. Envisat's MERIS acquired this image on 3 May 2010 at a resolution of 300 m.
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