NASA Volcanobot: Geological Robot Explores Kilhauea Fissures

An active lava flow from Kilauea volcano in Hawaii. 

Credit: Reuters

Nasa is planning to explore volcanoes using robots being developed at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has already tested one robot, VolcanoBot 1, at the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii and is now developing a second, lighter and smaller robot, to find out how volcanoes erupt.

Carolyn Parcheta, from Nasa's JPL, and robotics researcher Aaron Parness are developing bots that can delve into crevices humans never could in order to gain a new insight into volcanoes.

"We don't know exactly how volcanoes erupt. We have models but they are all very, very simplified. This project aims to help make those models more realistic," Parcheta explained.

Two robots designed to explore volcanoes are pictured here. VolcanoBot 1 (right) has a length of 12 inches (30 centimeters) and 6.7-inch (17-centimeter) wheels. 

VolcanoBot 2 (left) is smaller, as it is 10 inches (25 centimeters) long and has 5 inch (12 centimeter) wheels.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

VolcanoBot 1 was 30cm long and 17cm wide. It was rolled down into a fissure (a crack that erupts magma) in the active Kilauea volcano in Hawaii in May last year.

VolcanoBot 1 explored the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii in May 2014. 

The robot is enabling researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to put together a 3-D map of the fissure.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The robot set about mapping the pathways of the magma, descending to depths of 25m to two locations.

VolcanoBot 1 allowed the researchers to develop a 3D map of the fissure, confirming that bulges in the rock wall seen at the surface are present deep underground as well.

"To eventually understand how to predict eruptions and conduct hazard assessments, we need to understand how the magma is coming out of the ground. This is the first time we have been able to measure it directly, from the inside, to centimetre-scale accuracy," Parcheta said.

Researchers now want to return to the site with VolcanoBot 2 to delve deeper into the volcano. The latest version of the robot has stronger motors and electrical communications, so more data can be returned. As well as being smaller and lighter, it can tip up and down and turn to look at features around it.

Carolyn Parcheta working with VolcanoBot 1 in Hawaii in May 2014

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

"It has better mobility, stronger motors and smaller (5 inch, or 12 centimeter) wheels than the VolcanoBot 1. We've decreased the amount of cords that come up to the surface when it's in a volcano," Parcheta said.

VolcanoBot 2will be tested in March 2015, Nasa said.

The researchers say their findings have implications for studying volcanoes on other planets and moons, including Mars, Mercury, Enceladus and Europa.

Parness said: "In the last few years, NASA spacecraft have sent back incredible pictures of caves, fissures and what look like volcanic vents on Mars and the moon. We don't have the technology yet to explore them, but they are so tantalising!

"Working with Carolyn, we're trying to bridge that gap using volcanoes here on Earth for practice. We're learning about how volcanoes erupt here on Earth, too, and that has a lot of benefits in its own right."

Canadian Northern Light Mission to Mars seeks Crowdfunding

A prototype of the Canadian Beaver rover that could arrive at Mars in 2018. 

Credit: Thoth Technology

A Canadian company wants to land a couple of robots on Mars in late 2018, but to do so, it might need your help.

For the mission, called Northern Light, Thoth Technology plans to deliver a lander and a mini rover called "Beaver" to the Red Planet in the next four years, and the company is asking space fans to help crowdfund the huge undertaking.

The Northern Light mission will look for biomarker gases (those that could indicate biological sources) like methane, and will have the capability to grind into rocks, to find out the environment in which they were formed.

No landing site has been selected yet, but it will likely be close to the equator for maximum sunshine.

Northern Light Lander and Robotic Arm

A key challenge, however, will be obtaining sufficient funding. The full cost of the mission has not been disclosed publicly, but development costs are expected to add up to $980,000, Roberts said.

An Indiegogo campaign has raised roughly C$6,000 ($5,320) of that, and will close Jan. 3.

Caroline Roberts, president and CEO of Thoth Technology, said she prefers not to speculate on what will happen, or what other funding avenues would be pursued, if the crowdfunding campaign doesn't raise its goal of $1 million CAD.

“We're hoping it will be successful," Roberts told reporters. "We carry on, regardless of the level of hope. We're not stopping."

More money will be needed to buy a ride on a rocket and to operate the mission from the Algonquin Radio Observatory, a Canadian telescope owned by Thoth that would serve as the link between Mars and Earth.

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity views comet C/2013 A1 near Mars

Researchers used the Pancam on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity to capture this view of comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring as it flew near Mars on Oct. 19, 2014.

Credit: NASA /JPL-Caltech /Cornell Univ. /ASU /TAMU

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity captured images of a comet passing much closer to Mars than any previous known comet flyby of Earth or Mars.

The images of comet Siding Spring were taken against a backdrop of the pre-dawn Martian sky on Sunday (Oct. 19).

Images of comet A1 Siding Spring from the rover's panoramic camera (Pancam) are available online.

Researchers used Opportunity's Pancam to image at a range of exposure times about two-and-one-half hours before the closest approach of the nucleus of comet Siding Spring to Mars.

By the time of closest approach at about 87,000 miles (139,500 kilometers), dawn had lit the sky above Opportunity.

"It's excitingly fortunate that this comet came so close to Mars to give us a chance to study it with the instruments we're using to study Mars," said Opportunity science team member Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, who coordinated the camera pointing.

"The views from Mars rovers, in particular, give us a human perspective, because they are about as sensitive to light as our eyes would be."

Three NASA Mars orbiters, two Mars rovers and other assets on Earth and in space are studying comet Siding Spring.

This comet is making its first visit this close to the sun from the outer solar system's Oort Cloud, so the concerted campaign of observations may yield fresh clues to our solar system's earliest days more than 4 billion years ago.

Opportunity has been roving on Mars since January 2004 and has provided evidence about the Red Planet's ancient wet environments.

UAE launches project to send unmanned probe to Mars

Oil-rich United Arab Emirates on Monday launched a project that aims to send the first Arab unmanned probe to Mars by 2021.

The Gulf state set up the UAE Space Agency to supervise and finance the "Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) to execute and manage all stages of the Mars probe project," a statement said.

The two entities signed a seven-year partnership agreement Monday, setting the timing as well as legal and financial frameworks for the Mars project, said the statement.

In July the UAE government revealed a plan to create a space agency to drive the project.

It said at the time that UAE investments in space technologies have already topped 20 billion dirhams ($5.44 billion).

The UAE, a seven-emirate federation formed in 1971, will become the ninth country in the world with space programmes to explore the Red Planet, according to the statement.

On Oct 20th his Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, on Monday attended the signing of an agreement to build the first Arab Islamic probe to reach Mars.

The agreement emphasises the importance of building a national base of research, developing specialised national cadres during the coming years, and the commitment of international partners in conveying all necessary knowledge to the national work team which will, in turn, contribute to building a solid scientific base for developing the UAE space sector.

“We started today a seven-year journey with a national team; through it we will cross hundreds of millions of miles to build globally competitive Emirati individuals. We say to the people of our region join us in building a new history for our Arab nation,” Shaikh Mohammad said on his social media account.

Upon completion, the probe is expected to reach Mars in nine months, an achievement which will make the UAE one of nine nations around the world with a Mars exploration space programme.

The probe’s estimated time of arrival on Mars, the year 2021, coincides with the 50th anniversary of the creation of the UAE.

Space is considered a key factor for economic security, used for satellite communications, broadcasting, meteorology and observing natural disasters.

The UAE’s current national investments in technology-related projects and industry is more than Dh20 billion, which includes Yahsat satellite communications company and Thuraya telecommunications company.

The UAE Space Agency was earlier set up by Shaikh Mohammad for supervising and organising all space activities, developing the sector, ensuring knowledge transfer, enhancing the UAE’s position as a global player in aerospace, and maximising the contribution of space industries to the national economy. The agency will report to the Cabinet and enjoy financial and administrative independence.

The UAE’s purpose is to build Emirati technical and intellectual capabilities in the fields of aerospace and space exploration and to enter the space industry and to make use of space technology in a way that enhances the country’s development plans.

NISAR: NASA and ISRO Collaboration on Mars Exploration

This stunning view of Mars from India's Mangalyaan spacecraft was released on Sept. 29, 2014, less than a week after the orbiter arrived at the planet.

Credit: ISRO

India's recent Mars success appears to have turned some heads.

NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will investigate ways to collaborate on future missions to Mars, officials said Tuesday (Sept. 30).

The announcement comes just one week after India put its first-ever Mars probe in orbit around the Red Planet, becoming just the fourth entity, after the United States, the Soviet Union and the European Space Agency, to do so.

NASA and ISRO also signed an agreement Tuesday that lays out their respective roles on the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission, which is scheduled to launch to Earth orbit in 2020 to study the consequences of climate change on a fine scale.

"The signing of these two documents reflects the strong commitment NASA and ISRO have to advancing science and improving life on Earth," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement. "This partnership will yield tangible benefits to both our countries and the world."



Bolden and ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan signed the two agreements Tuesday at the International Astronautical Congress meeting in Toronto.

The Mars document sets up a NASA-ISRO Mars working group, which will meet once a year to identify and plan out joint activities, which could at some point include a cooperative mission to the Red Planet, NASA officials said.

An artist's concept of the planned NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), satellite in orbit, showing the large deployable mesh antenna, solar panels and radar electronics attached to the spacecraft. 

The mission is a partnership between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization. 

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Also up for discussion, they added, will be possible ways to coordinate the science activities of India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) probe and NASA's MAVEN spacecraft (short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution), which arrived at the Red Planet on Sept. 21, just a week before MOM did.

The NISAR mission will employ two different radar frequencies, known as L-band and S-band, to measure and study small surface changes around the globe, officials said.

The new agreement specifies that NASA will provide NISAR's L-band system, a data-communication subsystem and some other gear; ISRO will be responsible for the body of the spacecraft, the S-band system, the rocket and launch services, NASA officials said.

NASA and ISRO have a history of working together. Under an agreement signed in 2008, for example, NASA provided two science payloads for India's Chandrayaan-1 moon mission, which spotted signs of water ice near the lunar north pole after launching in 2008.

European Rover Challenge 2014: Robotic rovers do compete over Mars exploration

The "Scorpio" Mars rover constructed by students of the Polish Wroclaw University, at the European Rover Challenge 2014 on September 4, 2014 in Checiny, Poland Robots built to traverse the rugged terrain of Mars battled it out in Poland on Friday in a competition to find the best way to explore the Red Planet.

The European Rover Challenge 2014 has drawn competitors from as far as Colombia, Egypt and India, keen to prove their machines have what it takes to conquer the giant mountains and unforgiving canyons of Earth's neighbour.

The automated vehicles, designed to emulate NASA's Mars rover explorers, will be tested performing four tasks on red soil imitating the surface of Mars.

Tasks include surface exploration, helping an injured astronaut, gathering soil samples and searching for signs of life.

"At last, our robot Scorpio 4 is ready for the competition," Szymon Dzwonczyk, a 21-year-old student at the Wroclaw University of Technology in southern Poland, told AFP.

"It's a four-wheeled modular build that can be used in different ways for scientific exploration," he said.

An early version of his team's robot won second place in last year's global University Rover Challenge, organised by NASA in a Utah desert.

First place went to students from Bialystok, in eastern Poland.

"Coming second made us want to work harder," says Dzwonczyk, who is also hoping to attract commercial interest in the versatile machine.

The weekend competition is being organised by the Polish branch of the International Mars Society, focused on "furthering the exploration and settlement of the Red Planet," according to its website.

Members of the Kielce University of Technology team watch their "Impuls" Mars rover before the European Rover Challenge 2014 on September 5, 2014 in Checiny, Poland

Under way in Checiny, southern Poland, the European Rover Challenge is open to the public.

NASA experts are expected to attend a conference on its sidelines exploring humans in space.

BIOMEX Mission: Exploring Mars in Low Earth Orbit

BIOMEX Logo. Image courtesy DLR.

In their quest to understand life's potential beyond Earth, astrobiologists study how organisms might survive in numerous environments, from the surface of Mars to the ice-covered oceans of Jupiter's moon, Europa.

For now, Earth is our only example of an inhabited planet, and studying the limits of habitability on Earth is a major component of astrobiology research.

For this reason, scientists collect data from places on our planet where life is pushed to the absolute limits of adaptability, from the Antarctic to the Arctic, and from smoldering thermal vents to highly acidic rivers.

But locations like the Antarctic Dry Valleys or deep-sea vents in the Pacific aren't the only places in which astrobiologists study life as we know it.

Low Earth orbit provides an opportunity to observe Earth-life in the harsh conditions of space.

In the early hours of July 24th, 2014, a new astrobiology experiment began its journey from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station (ISS).

BIOMEX (Biology and Mars Experiment) launched onboard a Russian Progress cargo spacecraft and is one of four experiments that make up the EXPOSE-R2 facility, which will be mounted on the exterior of the ISS Zvezda module.

Just six hours after launch, the cargo ship successfully docked with the ISS.

Life on the Station
BIOMEX contains twelve different experimental packages that are designed to help determine life's potential on Mars.

The Institute of Planetary Research at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is coordinating BIOMEX, but the project involves 25 participating institutions from around the world.

BIOMEX contains numerous chambers that are filled with biomolecules and organisms that include bacteria, archaea, algae, fungi, lichens and mosses.

Replicate samples spread across the compartments are subjected to a range of environmental conditions.

Some samples of each biomolecule or organism are embedded in a simulant Mars soil (ranging from just a single layer of soil to multiple layers), and other samples are left on their own to face the space environment without protection.

Various filters are also being used on the sample chambers to test exposure to different levels of radiation.

By doing this, scientists are able to simulate the solar radiation present at the martian surface. Some of the sample chambers are even pumped full of a simulated Mars atmosphere that is rich in carbon dioxide and pressurized to replicate conditions on Mars.

"To gain real insights into the behaviour of biomolecules within a martian environment, we have to check the different parameters we might encounter on Mars," explained Dr. Jean-Pierre Paul de Vera of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the principle investigator for BIOMEX.

"This means we will approach - as much as possible on the ISS - martian conditions, including extreme temperature regimes, martian atmosphere by using Mars-like gases in the compartments of EXPOSE-R2, and the radiation regime, which we can never simulate in the labs on Earth."

The samples will spend up to one and a half years outside the space station, and the organisms inside will be monitored with temperature sensors and dosimeters, which monitor radiation exposure.

The goal is to see how exposure to these varied environmental pressures affects the survival of the organisms and the stability of important cellular components like membrane lipids, pigments, proteins and DNA.

The results of BIOMEX will help astrobiologists understand whether or not these biological materials can cope with conditions in the space environment and on Mars, and if being buried in martian soil might aid in their survival.

40,000 People needed to Colonise any Alien Planet

Adrian Mann's illustration depicts a future starship under construction in Earth orbit using a ring-type construction facility, which could provide hotel rooms for guests who wish to view the construction.

Hungary-based space illustrator Adrian Mann is a graphical engineer for Project Icarus.
Credit: Adrian Mann

If humanity ever wants to colonise a planet beyond the solar system, it's going to need a really big spaceship.

The founding population of an interstellar colony should consist of 20,000 to 40,000 people, said Cameron Smith, an anthropologist at Portland State University in Oregon.

Such a large group would possess a great deal of genetic and demographic diversity, giving the settlement the best chance of survival during the long space voyage and beyond, he explained.

"Do you want to just squeak by, with barely what you can get? Or do you want to go in good health?" Smith said on July 16 during a presentation with NASA's Future In-Space Operations (FISO) working group (mp3 file).

"I would suggest, go with something that gives you a good margin for the case of disaster."

Revisiting the numbers
In the past, researchers have proposed that a few hundred people would be sufficient to establish a settlement on or near an alien planet but Smith thought it was time to take another look.

"I wanted to revisit the issue," he said. "It had been quite a long time, and of course we now know more about population genetics from genomics."

For his study, which was published in April in the journal Acta Astronautica, Smith assumed an interstellar voyage lasting roughly 150 years.

This time frame is consistent with that envisioned by researchers at Icarus Instellar, a nonprofit organization dedicated to pursuing travel to another star.

Smith's calculations, which combine information from population genetics theory and computer modeling, point toward a founding population of 14,000 to 44,000 people.

A "safe and well-considered figure" is 40,000, about 23,000 of whom would be men and women of reproductive age, Smith writes in the study.

This figure may seem "astoundingly large," Smith acknowledged, but he stressed that it makes sense.

Smith writes in the Acta Astronautica paper; "This number would maintain good health over five generations despite;

• increased inbreeding resulting from a relatively small human population, 
• depressed genetic diversity due to the founder effect, 
• demographic change through time and 
• expectation of at least one severe population catastrophe over the five-generation voyage,"

Data from the real world support the overall thrust of his findings, Smith added.

"Almost no natural populations of vertebrates dip below around five to 7,000 individuals," he said during the FISO talk.

" There are genetic reasons for this. And when they do go below this, sometimes they survive, but many times they go into what's called a demographic or extinction vortex."

Sending frozen sperm and eggs on the voyage with a limited number of human "tenders" is also an option, Smith said, though he didn't consider it seriously in the new paper.

"It can be done, but it's so different from the human experience of living in communities and so forth that I've kind of avoided that," he said.

"I'm kind of assuming, or sticking with, 'What is the experience of humanity so far, and what can we learn from it?"

Calculating paths to Asteroids reveals future exploration opportunities

This image of asteroid 433 Eros is a mosaic of images from NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR-Shoemaker) spacecraft, which visited the asteroid in 2000. 

The images were combined with elevation data from the spacecraft's laser rangefinder to build a 3D representation of the asteroid. 

Credit: NEAR Project, NLR, JHUAPL, Goddard SVS, NASA

As left over building blocks of the solar system's formation, asteroids are of significant interest to scientists.

Resources, especially water, embedded within asteroids could be of use to astronauts traveling through deep space.

Likewise, asteroids could continue to be destinations for robotic and human missions as NASA pioneers deeper into the solar system, to Mars and beyond.

NASA is developing the capabilities needed for astronauts to reach Mars in the 2030s.

To test these new technologies, the agency is planning a mission to identify, capture and redirect an asteroid to a stable orbit around the moon in the 2020s, which astronauts will visit.

Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) EVA

NASA is studying candidate asteroids for the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM). One of the systems that helps to identify such an asteroid is the Near-Earth Object Human Space Flight Accessible Targets Study (NHATS) developed and maintained at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

NHATS is an automated system that uses specialized computer algorithms to compute spacecraft trajectories for possible round-trip mission opportunities to visit a Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA).

It is the first study to perform a thorough investigation of NEA accessibility for human space flight and the only automated accessibility monitoring system of its kind in the world.

After two years of operation, NHATS has identified more than 1,000 NEAs that could be destinations for future robotic or human missions, enabled by future technology.

In the near-term, some of them could be potential candidates for the ARM mission.

"We didn't know what the NEA-accessibility landscape for human spaceflight really looked like until the NHATS was created," said Brent Barbee of NASA Goddard, NHATS project lead.

"As of 1 July, 2014, there are now 1,217 NEAs identified by our project that require less flight time and energy to visit and return from than does a Mars mission."

Asteroids have a wide range of sizes, from about the size of a car to objects resembling small moons hundreds of miles across.

Their gravity is relatively weak, making them interesting targets for exploration missions.

Most asteroids are found in the Main Asteroid Belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, but there is a substantial population whose orbits come close to Earth's.

Small asteroids are much more numerous than big ones, astronomers estimate near-Earth space likely contains millions of NEAs a few yards (meters) across, nearly 16,000 NEAs between 100 and 300 yards across, and nearly 5,000 NEAs between 300 and 1,000 yards in size.

To be classified as a NEA, the asteroid's orbit must come within 1.3 times the average distance of Earth's orbit about the Sun.

This conceptual image shows NASA’s Orion spacecraft (right) approaching the robotic asteroid capture vehicle, which has an asteroid in its capture bag (left). 

Credit: NASA

Because their orbits take them close to Earth's orbit, some NEAs are potential Earth impact threats.

NASA has a program to detect NEAs, estimate their orbits, and assess whether they pose an impact risk.

The automated Sentry system identifies potentially hazardous Near-Earth Objects (NEOs: "objects" includes comets as well as asteroids) using observations from telescopes at observatories around the world and in space.

Sentry was designed and implemented, and is managed, by NASA's NEO Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

All telescopic observations of NEOs (professional and amateur) to determine their position and orbit are transmitted to the Minor Planet Center (MPC), which is the International Astronomical Union (IAU) sanctioned global clearinghouse for all such observational data.

Once an initial orbit is determined, the MPC delivers the observational data for NEOs to JPL, which then computes a higher precision orbit for the NEOs based on the observational data.

The orbit data for each NEO can be accessed through JPL's Small-Body Database , and the JPL Horizons system provides an interface through which ephemeris data (position and velocity versus time) can be accessed for each of the NEOs.

Barbee developed the NHATS system to find easily accessible asteroid mission opportunities based on the JPL/Horizons data.

"In a sense, the NHATS system complements hazard tracking," said Barbee. "The NHATS system monitors the opportunities offered by NEAs, while the JPL Sentry system monitors the hazards NEAs may pose to Earth."

Each day the NHATS system downloads the list of the known NEAs, figures out which ones are newly discovered and which ones have updated orbit data available, and then downloads the orbit data files for those NEAs from Horizons.

The NHATS system then applies the NHATS algorithms to each of those NEA orbit data files to compute all the possible round-trip trajectories to those NEAs using a method of embedded trajectory grids that Barbee developed.

Embedded trajectory grids are used to calculate the various possible spacecraft paths, or trajectories, to a target NEA based on mission criteria.

For an NEA to be identified as a potential human mission destination, it must meet several criteria.

"The NHATS criteria were developed by a human exploration committee in September of 2010," said Barbee.

"The idea was for the criteria to mean that round-trip missions to the NHATS-compliant NEAs would be less demanding than even the least demanding round-trip missions to Mars."

The criteria include departure dates not too far in the future (no later than 2040), a reasonable amount of time at the asteroid to explore (at least 8 days), a round-trip flight time of 450 days or less, and a lower fuel requirement than a Mars mission.

Barbee maintains a mailing list to which the GSFC NHATS computer automatically transmits each day's processing results.

This chart shows the human-crewed mission opportunities to NEAs that have been identified as of June 7, 2014. 

Blue and green asterisks are missions that require less time (horizontal axis) and energy (vertical axis) than a Mars mission. 

This chart is updated every few months. Credit: Brent Barbee

"Anyone can sign up for the mailing list, but the intent is for astronomers and NEO scientists to sign up so that they receive rapid notification when a NEA is discovered that is particularly accessible. This helps ensure that follow-up observations are obtained in a timely manner," said Barbee.

This diagram shows various NEA orbits. 

The yellow dot is the Sun, the blue-green dot is Earth, and the thick black line is Earth's orbit. 

The thin black line is the NEA's orbit. 

AU is Astronomical Unit, Earth's approximate distance from the Sun, about 93 million miles (almost 150 million km). 

Credit: Brent Barbee

"I check the daily NHATS results message as soon as it arrives to see what 'the night's catch' brought in for newly discovered and updated NEAs," said Lindley Johnson, NASA's NEO Programs Executive.

"The information is crucial because it's our first look at opportunities to observe smaller NEAs when they are very close to Earth."

"Most often we have only a few days after discovery to make follow-up observations, so rapid notification is critical."

"Follow-up observations are important because they allow us to establish the NEA's orbit around the Sun more accurately, and to learn about the NEO's spin state, size, and composition. All of that information is vital for mission planning."

NHATS began in September of 2010 but was not fully automated until March 20, 2012. Barbee expects the project to continue indefinitely, as there are many more mission opportunities to be found.

"At present we have discovered 11,180 NEOs of all sizes, and we estimate that there are at least 10,000 NEOs larger than 100 yards in size that we haven't found yet," said Barbee.

Many will also provide opportunities for longer-duration robotic spacecraft missions.

This diagram illustrates the parts of a conceptual human-crewed mission to an asteroid. 

The blue oval represents Earth's orbit, the green oval is the asteroid's orbit, and the red arcs are the spacecraft's trajectory to and from the asteroid. 

Credit: Brent Barbee 

An example of a long-duration robotic asteroid sample return mission is the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, which will investigate and return a sample from a NEA named Bennu. Scheduled for launch in late 2016, the spacecraft will reach Bennu in 2018 and return a sample to Earth in 2023.

This artist's concept shows the instrument deck of the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample and return mission. 

The spacecraft also has instruments that will measure anomalies in the astroid's movement and gravity. 

Image Credit: NASA

NASA's asteroid initiative is underway to support the agency's efforts to understand the population of potentially hazardous NEOs and characterize a subset of interest, including those suitable for future asteroid exploration missions.

The initiative brings together the best of NASA's science, technology and human exploration efforts to achieve President Obama's goal of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025.

US Researchers to use exosuit to explore ancient Greek Antikythera wreck

Marine archeologists with the American Museum of Natural History are planning to explore the ancient Greek Antikythera wreck in the Agean Sea, using an exosuit developed by Nuytco Research, originally for use in helping workers in New York's water treatment facilities.

The iron-man looking exosuit allows a diver to descend to 1000 feet for hours at a time without need for decompressing upon returning to the surface.

The Antikythera was discovered by divers in 1900, attempts to explore the wreck resulted in recovery of many artifacts, mostly famously, one that is known as the Antikythera mechanism, now referred to as the world's oldest computer, but it also led to injury and death due to the extreme depth (120 meters).

Subsequent attempts more recently have led to more discoveries, but time constraints have prevented a thorough study of the wreck.

Wearing the exosuit, the researchers hope will not only allow for mapping the wreck, but for discovery of more artifacts, some perhaps as interesting as the Antikythera mechanism.

The suit, which is essentially a body submarine, allows for both arm and leg movements, courtesy of multiple patented rotary joints.

It also has 1.6 horsepower thrusters that are activated by the "pilot" via pads inside the boots.

It's made of mostly aluminum, and weighs 530 pounds. The hands are claw-like, which has meant many hours of training in pools for the research team.

The suit also has external LED lights and cameras, an oxygen replenishment system and a tether to the surface with a fiber optic gigabit Ethernet that allows for two-way communications, a live video feed, and monitoring of the suit and its wearer.

In the event of an emergency, the suit has backup batteries and systems to maintain life support, if necessary, the four man crew up top can take over control of the suit to bring the diver out of harm's way.

The team has scheduled a test run of the suit this summer at a site called the Canyons off the coast of Rhode Island. If all goes well, plans for exploring the Antikythera wreck can proceed, paving the way for a whole new way to explore undersea wrecks from virtually any era.

WHOI NEREUS: Scientists use ROV to explore Kermadec Trench‎

Researchers will use the deep-submergence vehicle Nereus in their explorations. 

Credit: WHOI

What lives in the deepest part of the ocean, the abyss?

A team of researchers funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) will use the world's only full-ocean-depth, hybrid, remotely-operated vehicle, Nereus, and other advanced technology to find out.

They will explore the Kermadec Trench at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

The trench, located off New Zealand, is the fifth deepest trench in the world. Its maximum depth is 32,963 feet or 6.24 miles (10,047 meters).

It's also one of the coldest trenches due to the inflow of deep waters from Antarctica.

The 40-day expedition to the Kermadec Trench, which begins on April 12, 2014, kicks off a three-year collaborative effort.

The project, known as the Hadal Ecosystem Studies Project (HADES), will conduct the first systematic study of life in ocean trenches, comparing it to the neighbouring abyssal plains, flat areas of the seafloor usually found at depths between 9,843 and 19,685 feet (3,000 and 6,000 meters).

David Garrison

"The proposal to study the deep-sea environment as part of HADES was high-risk, but, we hope, also high-reward," says David Garrison, program director in NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences, which funds HADES.

"Through this exciting project, we will shine a light into the darkness of Earth's deep-ocean trenches, discovering surprising results all along the way."

Among least-explored environments on Earth
A result of extreme pressures in these deep-sea environments and the technical challenges involved in reaching them, ocean trenches remain among the least-explored environments on the planet.

Tim Shank

"We know relatively little about life in ocean trenches, the deepest marine habitats on Earth," says Tim Shank, a biologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, one of the participating organizations.

"We didn't have the technology to do these kinds of detailed studies before. This will be a first-order look at community structure, adaptation and evolution: how life exists in the trenches."

NSF HADES principal investigators are Tim Shank, Jeff Drazen of the University of Hawaii and Paul Yancey of Whitman College.

Telepresence technology aboard the NOAA research vessel Thomas G. Thompson will allow the public to share in the discoveries.

Live-streaming Web events from the seafloor will include narration from the science team.

The researchers' work will also be chronicled in video, still images and blog updates on the expedition website.

Mars Exploration in a UK Deep Mine

Scottish Prof. Charles Cockell collecting rock samples in Iceland. Image courtesy Aude Herrera.

This week, twenty European scientists will gather at the Science Facility Boulby mine in the UK to begin testing technologies for the exploration of Mars and hunting for deep subsurface life that will aid scientists in their search for extraterrestrial life.

The scientists are part of an exciting new European space exploration programme called MASE (Mars Analogues for Space Exploration) which will investigate how life adapts to Mars-like environments, such as the deep subsurface.

Boulby Mine, a 1.3 km-deep potash mine on the North East coast of England, offers the ideal environment to test procedures and technology required for the surface and subsurface exploration of Mars, whilst carrying out a programme of scientific research to understand life in the deep subsurface of the Earth.

In the process of doing this, new insights will be gained in technology transfer from the space exploration sector to the mining industry to improve mining safety and profitable mineral extraction, ensuring that space exploration and technologies directly benefit life here on Earth.

As a Mars analogue environment, Boulby mine's ecosystem has particular features and organisms that are of great interest for astrobiology in general and the MASE project in particular.

Professor Charles Cockell, scientific coordinator of the MASE programme and Director of the UK Centre for Astrobiology said, 'If we want to successfully explore Mars, we need to go to Mars-like places on Earth.

The deep, dark environment of Boulby mine is the ideal place to understand underground life and test space technologies for the exploration of Mars. In the process, we hope to aid the transfer of high technology from space exploration to safe, effective mining'.

The MASE programme is scientifically coordinated by the UK Centre for Astrobiology, which, in conjunction with Boulby Mine and the Science and Technology Facilities Councils (STFC) Boulby Underground Laboratory, also runs the MINAR (Mine Analogue Research) programme at Boulby, a programme to study how space technologies can be transferred into the mining sector at the same time as being used to explore the deep subsurface for life.

The MASE FP7 project and the related MINAR programme activities at Boulby are made possible by the cooperation of and support from the Boulby Mine operators, Cleveland Potash Limited.

MARS MARTE: Mars simulation chamber explores habitability of other planets

The simulation chamber, named MARTE, is designed to enable study of the behaviour of instrumentation and samples of different types and sizes in pressure ranges up to 10-6 mbar controlling the gas composition, with temperature control of samples in the range of 108K to 423K. 

Credit: J. Martín-Gago/ICMM

A research team in Spain has the enviable job of testing out new electromechanical gear for potential use in future missions to the "Red Planet."

They do it within their Mars environmental simulation chamber, which is specially designed to mimic conditions on the fourth planet from the sun, right down to its infamous Martian dust.

Mars is a key target for future space exploration, thanks to indications that the planet may have either been capable of supporting life in the past or is possibly even supporting it right now within its subsurface.

To answer the many questions about the habitability of Mars, it's critical to first develop new sensors and instruments capable of detecting the planet's atmospheric and surface characteristics.

In the journal Review of Scientific Instruments, researchers from Centro de Astrobiología, INTA-CSIC, and Instituto de Ciencias de Materials de Madrid describe their work mimicking conditions on Mars.

Jose Angel Martín-Gago

"Mars is a good place to learn about planets similar to ours and, as such, is the target of many NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) missions," explained Jose Angel Martín-Gago, a research professor at the Instituto de Ciencias de Materials de Madrid.

"Our group is primarily involved in the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission to construct a meteorological station intended for future use on a rover to further explore Mars' surface."

By building here on Earth state-of-the-art vacuum chambers capable of reproducing the physical conditions of Mars, including temperature, pressure, gas composition, and radiation, the researchers can experimentally mimic these conditions to test instrumentation in "real" environmental operation conditions.

Vacuum chambers have already enabled the researchers to test some of the meteorological sensors currently used onboard the Curiosity rover, which is exploring the surface of Mars but they are now turning their attention to other challenges, such as Martian dust.

Jesus Sobrado

"We're simulating the effect of the Martian dust, one of the primary problems for planetary exploration, to gain a better understanding of how instruments behave when covered in dust," said Jesus Sobrado, the scientist in charge of the machine's technical development.

As part of its research effort, the team has designed and built vacuum chambers devoted to simulating spatial environments, such as the surface of other planets like Mars' surface or even Jupiter's icy moon Europa, the interstellar medium, and interplanetary regions.

More information: "Mimicking Mars: A vacuum simulation chamber for testing environmental instrumentation for Mars" by J.M. Sobrado, J. Martín-Soler, and J.A. Martín-Gago, Review of Scientific Instruments on March 25, 2014. DOI: 10.1063/1.4868592

NIAC: Fleets of 'Flat Landers' Could Explore Other Planets

Future space missions may send dozens of rug-like robots fluttering down to the surface of alien worlds, taking much of the risk out of planetary exploration. 

Credit: Hamid Hemmati

Future space missions may send dozens of rug-like robots fluttering down to the surface of alien worlds, taking much of the risk out of planetary exploration.

Researchers are developing flat, blanket-size landers that could be delivered en masse to worlds such as Mars or the Jupiter moon Europa.

The approach represents a radical departure from the surface-exploration status quo, which generally launches single-shot, big-ticket landers or rovers that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to design and build.

The two-dimensional lander idea "gives you the capability to stack them up and distribute them over a wide range of areas rather than just be able to land in only one place, and have one shot at landing," Hamid Hemmati, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said last month at the 2014 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) symposium at Stanford University.

"We think it will enable NASA to go places that that they don't dare to go right now."

A new type of exploration
Hemmati and his team got a $100,000 grant from NIAC last year to develop the "flat lander" concept.

The current vision calls for dozens of sensor-loaded sheets, each about 3 feet long by 3 feet wide (1 meter by 1 meter), but less than 0.4 inches (1 centimeter) thick, to be toted to another planet or moon by a mother ship.

Mason Peck, Cornell University, In-Orbit Assembly of Modular Space Systems with Non-Contacting, Flux-Pinned Interfaces.

Each sheet would touch down at a different location, without the need for complicated and expensive landing systems such as the "sky crane" that dropped NASA's Curiosity rover onto the surface of Mars in August 2012, researchers say.

Nestor Voronka, Tethers Unlimited, Inc., An Architecture of Modular Spacecraft with Integrated Structural Electrodynamic Propulsion (ISEP)

"These landers should be capable of passive landings, avoiding the costly, complex use of rockets, radar and associated structure and control systems," Hemmati and his colleagues write in a description of the project on the NIAC website.

The loss of a few landers on any particular mission would not be a big deal anyway, Hemmati said.

"They don't all have to survive; we have dozens of them," he said. "Even if half of them make it, it's still good. We'll be happy."