Missions | Universe Today

As we reported last week, it seemed as if the Hayabusa asteroid explorer mission was dealt a fatal blow when the third of its four ion engines failed. But the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced yesterday that it may have come up with a solution to that problem to get Hayabusa back home by using components from two different inoperable thrusters in combination. Read more…

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A little good news for Spirit! The rover successfully moved; not very much, but it's the first step of a planned two-step motion to try and get Spirit free from a sand trap on Mars. On Sol 2090 (Nov. 19), the rover spun its wheels for the equivalent of 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) in the forward direction, and the center of the rover moved approximately 12 millimeters (0.5 inch) forward, 7 millimeters (0.3 inch) to the left and about 4 millimeters (0.2 inch) down. Again, not much, but it's the first good news and good movement the rover has had in months.
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Mission managers sent the drive commands to the Spirit rover at 4 a.m. EST (0900 GMT) today, — Nov. 17, 2009 and Sol 2088 for the rover — but the data back from the rover indicates the rover stopped less than one second after it began moving its wheels when the rover automatically sensed more lateral tilt than permitted. A tight limit on vehicle roll and pitch of less than 1 degree change was set for this first drive, and as the rover began its first move, it sensed that its roll was outside the allowed limit and safely stopped the drive. Those driving the rover say they are starting cautiously, setting initial parameters with very tight limits with the knowledge that these hair triggers may stop the rover frequently. As the project gains confidence with extrication, these limits may be relaxed. From this limited drive the team now has a more accurate measurement of vehicle roll and pitch that will be used for subsequent drive planning. Analysis is continuing. The team hopes to completion their planning of the next drive on Wednesday, Nov. 18, with possible wheel movement again on the 19th (Sol 2090)
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The Dawn spacecraft – which is on a course to study the asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres – has taken up permanent residence in the asteroid belt as of November 13th. Dawn is officially the first human-made object to become a part of the asteroid belt, which is sandwiched between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Read more…

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You've seen the pictures, now watch the movie! Zoom into the Apollo 11 landing site with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's latest images of Tranquility Base where humans took their first steps on the Moon. Thrill with the detail! Swoon with the history! Or, just enjoy it.

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On Monday, Nov. 16, NASA will begin transmitting commands to the Spirit rover on Mars to begin the extrication process to free the rover from where she has been stuck since April 23rd of this year. While members of the rover team have not given up on getting the rover to rove again, they were very guarded at a press conference Thursday in showing any optimism about removing Spirit from her predicament. "Spirit is facing the most challenging situation we have seen on Mars," said Doug McCuistion director, Mars Exploration Program. "We know a lot of people view Spirit with great affection, and have followed along with the mission and seen new vistas and landscapes along with the rover to uncover new knowledge about our sister planet. But I want everybody to be realistic. This is a serious situation and if it cannot make the great escape from this sandtrap its likely this lonely spot might be where Spirit ends its adventures on Mars."
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A problem-plagued Japanese mission to an asteroid just may have received its final blow. The Haybusa mission, which went to asteroid Itokawa in 2005 is currently trying to return to Earth, but now has suffered a breakdown in the third out of four ion thrusters. The cause was a voltage spike due to problems with a neutralization vessel, which previously caused the failure of two other thrusters. The fourth and only remaining thruster was shutdown earlier by engineers after signs that it also might succumb to high voltage damage. Engineers are now testing that engine, Thruster C, to determine if it is capable of long-duration firings. Hayabusa, which landed on Itokawa (possibly several times – mission managers aren't sure) might contain samples, but due to a malfunction of the sample collection device, JAXA has acknowledged that it cannot be sure Hayabusa actually managed to take samples from the surface of the asteroid.
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The Spirit Rover, which has had its wheels stuck for 145 Martian sols, has finally moved! Though she's far from being extricated from her current position, this is the first time that she's budged in quite a while. The Mars rover driving team is working on ways to get Sprit out, and this recent move was just them getting Spirit's wheels in alignment for an upcoming procedure to free her from the sand trap she's stuck in. But it's a start!

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A glitch in the Kepler spacecraft's electronics means the space telescope will not have the ability to spot an Earth-sized planet until 2011, according to principal investigator William Borucki. Noisy amplifiers are creating noise that compromises Kepler's view, and the team will have to generate and upload a software fix for the spacecraft. "We're not going to be able to find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone — or it's going to be very difficult — until that work gets done," said Borucki, who revealed the problem last week to the NASA Advisory Council.
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In a case of being in the right place at the right time, the MESSENGER spacecraft was able to capture a average-sized solar flare, allowing astronomers to study high-energy solar neutrons at less than 1 astronomical unit (AU) from the sun for the first time. When the flare erupted on Dec. 31, 2007, MESSENGER – on course for entering orbit around Mercury — was flying at about half an AU, said William C. Feldman, a scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. Previously, only the neutron bursts from the most powerful solar flares have been recorded on neutron spectrometers on Earth or in near-Earth orbit. The MESSENGER results help solve a mystery of why some coronal mass ejections produce almost no energetic protons that reach the Earth, while others produce huge amounts.
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Times are tough, but you have to wonder what this guy was thinking. Stewart David Nozette, 52, who was involved in the recent discovery of water on the Moon by the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft has been arrested for espionage for allegedly trying to sell details of US missile detection satellites in exchange for cash. Nozette was attempting to sell classified information to a person who he believed was an Israeli intelligence officer. Nozette is a fairly prominent scientist who helped conceive the 1994 Clementine mission to the Moon, and currently is a co-investigator on Chandrayaan-1, the Indian Moon mission, and on an instrument aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
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National Geographic has put together a really nice zoomable poster on the history of robotic space exploration. It looks a little psychedelic from a distance, but zoom right in and follow the different missions to the various locations in our solar system, and see where the missions currently underway — like New Horizons, on its way to Pluto, and the venerable Voyagers that we hear from occasionally– are presently located. Click on the image to go to National Geographic's Map of the Day page. Enjoy!

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Even without big explosions or bright plumes of ejecta, for all intents and purposes it appears LCROSS's impact on the Moon was a smashing success. While the mainstream media and the public seemed disappointed in the lack of visual data, mission managers said the mission has garnered plenty of spectroscopic data, and that's where the real science can be found. "There was an impact and we saw the crater with spectroscopic data," said LCROSS principal investigator Tony Colaprete. "We have the data we need to address the questions we set out to answer." The big question is whether the impact kicked up any signatures of water ice, but it could take days, weeks or months to analyze all the data.
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On June 2, 1966 the Surveyor 1 spacecraft soft landed on the Moon, the first US spacecraft to set down on another body. Now, 43 years later the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera has spotted this historic spacecraft, sitting silently on the Moon's surface. The scene shows the spacecraft (annotated with an arrow, and the shadow shows up very well) just south of a 40 m diameter crater and about 110 m northwest of a 190 m diameter crater lined with boulders. The landing site is in the northeast corner of the Flamsteed Ring, a 100 km diameter impact crater almost completely buried by mare lavas such that all that remains exposed is the upper part of the original crater rim.
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The MESSENGER spacecraft went into safe mode just before its closest approach of Mercury on Sept. 29. Although the instruments were taking data as the spacecraft came near the planet during this third flyby of the mission, after going into safe mode, no further data or pictures were obtained. This means the expected science investigations from the flyby were not executed. However, as Emily Lakdawalla pointed on in the Planetary Blog, the most important purpose of this flyby was the last gravity assist that will allow MESSENGER to enter orbit in 2011, and to that end, the flyby was a complete success. Additionally, the images taken during the approach are of the 5% of Mercury that was previously unseen, as in the image above of this unnamed basin. See more images from the approach below.
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