Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Only 11 Space Shuttle Missions Remain

Space shuttle Discovery now sits majestically out on launch pad 39A, preparing for the upcoming STS-124 mission to the International Space Station. With the shuttle program slated to terminate in 2010, there’s a limited amount of times we’ll see that sight again: a space shuttle will crawl out to the pad only 10 more times –or possibly only 9 more. And whether that thought chokes you up a bit, or evokes a shout of “It’s about time!” here’s a quick look at the remaining shuttle missions and what each will accomplish. All dates and personnel are subject to change. (Updated 7/7/08)


Mission: STS-124
Proposed Launch Date: May 31, 2008, 5:02 pm EDT
Shuttle: Discovery
Mission Description: Discovery will bring the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module – Pressurized Module (JEM-PM) and the Japanese Remote Manipulator System (JEM-RMS) to the ISS. This is the 10th flight since the Columbia disaster, and the first mission that includes all the design modification to the external tank. Crew: Mark Kelly, Ken Ham, Mike Fossum, Karen Nyberg, Ronald Garan and Akihiko Hoshide, as well as bringing Greg Chamitoff to the station as part of Expedition 18.


Mission: STS-125
Proposed Launch Date: ~ October 8, 2008
Shuttle: Atlantis
Mission Description: Atlantis will fly to the Hubble Space Telescope for the fifth and final servicing mission for the venerable telescope, improving the observatory’s capabilities through 2013. Since the shuttle won’t be going to the ISS, which provides a safe haven in the event of an emergency, another shuttle, Endeavour, must be ready to go at the pad. Hence, the delay from the original launch date of August 28, 2008 as an additional new and improved external tank won’t be ready by then.
Crew: Scott Altman, Greg Johnson, Megan McArthur, Michael Good, John Grunsfeld, Michael Massimino and Andrew Feustel.


Mission: STS-126
Proposed Launch Date: ~ November 10, 2008
Shuttle: Endeavour
Mission Description: Endeavour, on ISS flight ULF2, will deliver supplies to the station in a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, and execute crew exchange for the ISS.
Crew: Chris Ferguson, Eric Boe, Stephen Bowen, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Don Pettit, R. Shane Kimbrough, as well as bringing Sandra Magnus to the station as part of Expedition 18, and returning Greg Chamitoff back home after his stint as part of Exp. 18.

Mission: STS-119
Proposed Launch Date: February 12, 2009
Shuttle: Discovery
Mission Description: Discovery will bring the fourth starboard truss segment to the ISS on assembly flight 15A, as well as the fourth set of solar arrays and batteries. Click here for a video of how the assembly will be accomplished.
Crew: Lee Archambault, Dominic Antonelli, John Phillips, Steven R. Swanson, Joseph Acaba, Richard Arnold (Acaba and Arnold are Educator Astronauts). Additionally, STS-119 will bring JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata to the station as part of Expedition 18, and bring home astronaut Sandy Magnus.

Mission: STS-127
Proposed Launch Date: May 15, 2009
Shuttle: Endeavour
Mission Description: Endeavour will deliver and install the final component of the Japanese Experiment Module, the Exposed Facility.
Crew: Mark Polansky, Doug Hurley, Christopher Cassidy, Thomas Marshburn, Dave Wolf, Julie Payette, as well as bringing ISS Expedition 19 Flight Engineer Timothy Kopra to the station and returning Koichi Wakata back home.

Mission: STS-128
Proposed Launch Date: July 30, 2009
Shuttle: Atlantis
Mission Description: Atlantis’ primary payload will be the Italian Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Donatello, which will deliver equipment to allow for bringing the station crew from three to six.
Crew: Not yet set, but currently, Nicole Stott is scheduled to be brought to the station as part of the Expedition 19, and Tim Kopra will get a ride home. The additional astronauts for the increased ISS crew size have not yet been named.


Mission: STS-129
Proposed Launch Date: October 15, 2009
Shuttle: Discovery
Mission Description: Discovery will deliver the first two ExPRESS(Expedite the Processing of Experiments to the Space Station) Logistics Carriers, which allows for “outdoor” experiments at the ISS.
Crew: Not yet named, but astronaut Jeff Williams is scheduled to be brought on board as part of Expedition 20, and Nicole Stott brought home.

Mission: STS-130
Proposed Launch Date: December 10, 2009
Shuttle: Endeavour, (possibly its last flight (see below)
Mission Description: Endeavour will bring supplies to the ISS in the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. No crew for the shuttle or station has yet been named.

Mission: STS-131
Proposed Launch Date: February 11, 2010
Shuttle: Atlantis, on its final flight
Mission Description: Atlantis will deliver the Docking Cargo Module and the third and fourth EXPRESS Logistics Carriers to the ISS on Assembly Flight ULF5.

Mission: STS-132
Proposed Launch Date: April 8, 2010
Shuttle: Discovery, its final flight
Mission Description: deliver the Node 3 components to the ISS, which includes advanced life support systems and a Cupola with a robotic workstation. It’s possible that this flight could be the final space shuttle mission if an additional contingency mission is not needed.

Mission: STS-133
Proposed Launch Date: May 31, 2010
Shuttle: Endeavour (for sure the final flight!)
Mission Description: This is a contingency flight to finish any remaining construction or bring up any remaining components, and possibly bring the 5th ExPRESS Logistics Carrier. If needed, this will be the final space shuttle mission.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Water in Interstellar Space

Water: it covers 70% of our own planet, it makes up 65% of our human bodies, and as far as we know, water seems to be essential for life. Water is also found in space, and in fact water ice is the most abundant solid material out there. But how did it get there, and how could water molecules possibly form in the freezing darkness of interstellar space? Japanese researchers trying to answer those questions say they have created water for the first time in conditions similar to interstellar space.

Water ice has been detected in our solar system on other planets and their moons, as well as in comets. A group of scientists at Japan’s Institute of Low Temperature Science at Hokkaido University say, “Since the solar system evolved from an interstellar molecular cloud, icy objects in the solar system originated from the water ice formed in the interstellar molecular cloud.” Their research was an attempt to gain an understanding of the origin of water molecules in interstellar clouds.

Water does form easily here in the warmth and abundance of Earth when oxygen and atomic hydrogen come together. But there’s not a lot of those elements floating around as gas in interstellar dust clouds. From their research, the group from Japan has concluded that water must form when atomic hydrogen interacts with frozen solid oxygen on a solid surface, such as dust grains in interstellar clouds.

They recreated this process by creating a layer of solid oxygen on an aluminum substrate at 10 degrees Kelvin and then added hydrogen. With infrared spectroscopy, they confirmed that both water and hydrogen peroxide formed, and in the right quantities to explain the abundance of water seen in interstellar clouds.

It’s interesting to note that the first water molecules in the universe must have started in this way, and that eventually led to water on Earth, then life, and then eventually people on Earth, who like to research, discuss and contemplate how it all began.

Original News Source: ArXiv, ArXiv blog

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

XMM-Newton Discovers Part of Missing Matter in the Universe

We’re getting the numbers down pretty well now about how much we don’t know about the universe: Only about 5% of our universe consists of normal matter, made of atoms. The rest of our universe is composed of elusive matter that we don’t understand: dark matter (23%) and dark energy (72%). And of that 5% of normal matter, well, we don’t know what half of that is, either. All the stars, galaxies and gas observable in the universe account for less than a half of all the matter that should be around.

About 10 years ago, scientists predicted that the missing half of ‘ordinary’ or normal matter exists in the form of low-density gas, filling vast spaces between galaxies. The European Space Agency announced today that the orbiting X-ray observatory XMM-Newton has uncovered this low density, but high temperature gas.

The universe has been described as a cosmic web. The dense part of the web is made of clusters of galaxies, which are the largest objects in the universe. Astronomers suspected that low-density gas filled in the filaments of the web. But the low density of the gas has made it difficult to detect. With the XMM-Newton’s high sensitivity, astronomers have discovered the hottest parts of this gas.

Astronomers using XMM-Newton were observing a pair of galaxy clusters, Abell 222 and Abell 223, located 230 million light-years from Earth, when the images and spectra of the system revealed a bridge of hot gas connecting the clusters.

“The hot gas that we see in this bridge or filament is probably the hottest and densest part of the diffuse gas in the cosmic web, believed to constitute about half the baryonic matter in the universe,” says Norbert Werner from SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, leader of the team reporting the discovery.

The discovery of this hot gas will help better understand the evolution of the cosmic web.

“This is only the beginning,” said Werner. “To understand the distribution of the matter within the cosmic web, we have to see more systems like this one. And ultimately launch a dedicated space observatory to observe the cosmic web with a much higher sensitivity than possible with current missions. Our result allows to set up reliable requirements for those new missions.”

Original News Source: ESA Press Release

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Another (Better) Opportunity to Send Your Name to Space

Kepler spacecraft. IMage credit: NASA

It’s a great idea, so all the missions might as well join in. Earlier today, Ian reported on how the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission is offering the chance for the public to ‘ride along’ to the moon by sending their names to be added to a computer chip which will be embedded on the spacecraft. Well, not to be outdone, the upcoming Kepler mission that will search for Earth-sized exoplanets is offering the same chance. But this is no sluff opportunity where you just fill in your name and you’re done: you’ve got to work a little and be creative! The Kepler folks would like you to also state in 100 words or less why you think the Kepler mission is important. I think that’s a great idea, and I’m going to add my name and statement right away. But there’s more reasons why I prefer the Kepler mission’s approach to sending your name to space:

Your name will be in an exciting Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit, going around the sun every 372.5 days.

This activity is done in association with the International Year of Astronomy 2009.

Your name will be on the spacecraft that will likely identify the first Earth-sized or smaller planet orbiting another star.

Your name will be launched on board a Delta II rocket.

Your name will be part of the mission that will determine the frequency of terrestrial and larger planets in or near the habitable zone of a wide variety of spectral types of stars.

Oh, the list goes on, but as you can see the Kepler mission will be THE mission to have your name be included.

So, here’s where you can add your name, as well as your statement of the importance of the Kepler mission. The deadline is November 1, 2008. And learn more about the mission here. Current plans are for a February 2009 launch for Kepler.

Original News Source: JPL press release

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Satellite Views of Deadly Cyclone in Myanmar

The cyclone that ravaged the southeast Asian country of Myanmar over the weekend was an incredibly deadly and destructive storm. News reports say at least 10,000 people were killed, and thousands more were missing as of May 5. Cyclone Nargis made landfall with sustained winds of 130 mph and gusts of 150-160 mph, which is the equivalent of a strong Category 3 or minimal Category 4 hurricane. This was the first cyclone of the 2008 season. Above is an image from NASA’s Terra satellite, and specifically the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS.) You can see this storm was a whopper, however, by the time MODIS acquired this image on May 3 at 10:55 am local time the cyclone had lost much of its original strength and was at tropical storm strength. Even more astounding are the images available from MODIS of the landscape of Myanmar both before and after the cyclone hit.


The top image was taken on April 15, 2008, well before the storm and shows a calm landscape where rivers and lakes are visible, as well as the green of vegetation. In the lower image, taken on May 5, the entire coastal plain is flooded. News reports say the agricultural areas have been especially hard hit. But cities as well were affected. For example, Rangôn, with a population over 4 million is almost completely surrounded by floods. Several other large cities with populations of 100,000–500,000 are also in the area affected by the cyclone.

The MODIS Rapid Response Team has been processing the images as soon as they are available from the spacecraft in order to provide information about the storm and the region.

The blue dot on the globe below marks the Andaman Sea and the area affected by Cyclone Nargis.

Original News Source: NASA’s Earth Observatory

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Titan’s Hydrocarbon “Sand Dunes

Even before the Cassini spacecraft entered the Saturn system, scientists were predicting that Saturn’s moon Titan would be quite Earth-like. And every image that’s been returned of Titan’s clouds, lakes, rivers, and other landforms is proving them right. In 2005 Cassini’s imaging radar discovered a massive area of sand dunes around Titan’s equatorial region. Although these dark, windblown dunes look much like sand dunes on Earth (they’ve been compared to mountainous drifts of coffee grounds), scientists are finding that the dunes are likely made of organic molecules that are not anything at all like sand.

Titan is known to have massive amounts of hydrocarbons. New observations of Titan’s sand dunes raise the possibility that much of the sand grows from hydrocarbon particulates fallen from Titan’s thick atmosphere. Once on the ground, the particulates join together and become sand grain-size particles.

This process is called sintering – where the particles are heated enough to melt together. Scientist Jason W. Barnes of NASA’s Ames Research Center says that this sintering may produce particles that are about the same size as sand grains – between 0.18-0.25 millimeters, which are perfect for blowing in the wind and drifting into dunes.

So, this process is quite the opposite of what happens to sand on Earth, which comes from silicates, gypsum, or rock that have broken down to finer grains. But on Titan, the small hydrocarbon particulates grow together into larger grains. Barnes says the process is extremely slow, but Titan has been around long enough for this to have occurred.

Based on measurements from Cassini, the dunes are 100-200 meters high and are between 1 and 79 kilometers long. Not all over Titan’s surface has been imaged, but scientists believe up to 20 % of Titan’s surface could be covered by these hydrocarbon dunes.

Original News Source: JPL

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Mission to the Sun

Astronomy
Solar Probe Spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

A mission to the sun is difficult stuff. For 30 years scientists and engineers have struggled with developing a spacecraft that could survive the harsh environment close to the sun, but always ended up running into insurmountable technology limitations or blowing the top off the budget. But now the Applied Physics Lab believes they have come up with a plan that will work, and NASA has given them the go-ahead to get a mission ready by 2015. And contrary to the old joke about a mission to the sun, the new Solar Probe won’t have an easy time of it by just heading to the sun at night!

The Solar Probe mission will come within 6.6 million kilometers (4.1 million miles) of the sun to study the streams of charged particles the sun hurls into space. The spacecraft will actually be within the sun’s corona — its outer atmosphere — where the solar wind is produced. At closest approach the Solar Probe will zip past the sun at 210 km (125 miles) per second, protected by a carbon-composite heat shield able to withstand up to 1425 degrees Celsius (2,600 degrees Fahrenheit) and survive blasts of radiation and energized dust at levels not experienced by any previous spacecraft.

The spacecraft will weigh about 1,000 pounds. Preliminary designs include a 2.7 meter (9 feet) diameter, 15 centimeter (6 inches) -thick, carbon-foam-filled solar shield atop the spacecraft body, similar to APL’s MESSENGER spacecraft.

The probe will be solar powered (no problem there!) with two sets of solar arrays that will retract or extend as the spacecraft swings toward or away from the sun during several loops around the inner solar system, making sure the panels stay at proper temperatures and power levels. At its closest passes the spacecraft must survive solar intensity more than 500 times what spacecraft experience while orbiting Earth.

“Solar Probe is a true mission of exploration,” says Dr. Robert Decker, Solar Probe project scientist at APL. “For example, the spacecraft will go close enough to the sun to watch the solar wind speed up from subsonic to supersonic, and it will fly though the birthplace of the highest energy solar particles. And, as with all missions of discovery, Solar Probe is likely to raise more questions than it answers.”

Solar Probe will use seven Venus flybys over nearly seven years to gradually shrink its orbit around the sun, coming as close as 4.1 million miles to the sun, about eight times closer than any spacecraft has come before.

The main goals of the Solar Probe are to determine the structure and dynamics of the sun’s magnetic field, trace the flow of energy that heats the corona and accelerates the solar wind, and explore dusty plasma near the sun and its influence on solar wind and energetic particle formation. This mission will also help us learn more about the sun-Earth relationship.

Original News Source: Eureka Alert

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Happy Space Day!

It’s the first Friday in May; therefore it must be Space Day! Since 1997 people around the world have used this day to celebrate humankind’s accomplishments in our exploration of space, as well as recognizing the benefits and opportunities that space exploration provides. While anyone can celebrate this occasion, the main goal of Space Day is to “promote math, science, technology and engineering education by nurturing young peoples’ enthusiasm for the wonders of the universe and inspiring them to continue the stellar work of today’s space explorers.” So, if you can, spend some time today talking about space and astronomy with a young person. Even better: do a space-related activity together….

The Space Day website has some great information for students, educators and parents and includes activities, games, and educational materials to download. For educators there are lesson plans and an event organizer.

The website even lists 101 Ways To Celebrate Space Day. Some of my favorites are:

#2. Pretend you are a reporter. Write a story about an important event in space exploration history. (I really like this one, and its even better when you don’t have to pretend!)

#23. Make models of craters or volcanoes from other planets. (Both are extremely fun.)

#37. Ask a librarian to help you find books about space exploration. (Librarians are wonderful.)

#101. Celebrate Space Day on the first Friday of May!

Learn more about Space Day here.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Triple and Double Craters on Mars

Scientists working with the Mars Odyssey spacecraft say that it’s not uncommon for multiple pieces of a meteor to impact Mars close together at the same time. Here, a triple crater was formed simultaneously when three pieces of a meteor struck Mars’ surface together. When this happens, the craters that are formed overlap and the force of the impacts results in a linear wall separating the craters that form side-by-side. This image is part of a larger image swath taken by the THEMIS instrument (Thermal Emission Imaging System) on the Odyssey spacecraft. On another part of this larger image, there’s also a double crater.


This double crater appears to be different, however, from the triple crater in that the two craters were likely formed at different times. The smaller crater to the left appears older, since material from when the second, larger crater to the right was formed has been thrown into the crater on the left. The crater on the left appears more eroded and weathered, as well.

Here’s the entire image swath from Odyssey:

The Mars Odyssey spacecraft arrived at Mars on October 24, 2001, and has been mapping the surface of the Red Planet since February 2002.

Click here to see a map of Mars where these craters are located.

Original News Source: THEMIS/Mars Odyssey webpage

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

New Type of White Dwarf Stars Discovered

Most of the stars in the universe will end their lives as white dwarfs, the class of star that’s just a remnant of the star’s former self when all the nuclear fuel in the star’s core has burned. Studying these white dwarfs gives astronomers an important view of the endpoint of most stars. Recently, researchers from the University of Texas have confirmed the existence of a new type of dwarf star, a “pulsating carbon white dwarf.” Since pulsating stars can reveal the inner workings of these stars, astronomers are hoping now to be able to learn more about what goes on inside white dwarf stars.

Until recently, astronomers knew of only two types of white dwarf stars: those that have an outer layer of hydrogen (about 80 percent), and about those with an outer layer of helium (about 20 percent), whose hydrogen shells have somehow been stripped away. Then in 2007, a third type was discovered, a very rare “hot carbon white dwarf.” These stars have had both their hydrogen and helium shells stripped off, leaving their carbon layer exposed.

After these new carbon white dwarfs were announced, Michael H. Montgomery from the University of Texas calculated that pulsations in these stars were possible. Similar to how geologists study seismic waves from earthquakes to understand what goes on in Earth’s interior astronomers can study the changes in light from a pulsating star to “look” into the star’s interior. In fact, this type of star-study is called “asteroseismology.”

Montgomery and his team began a systematic study of carbon white dwarfs with the Struve Telescope at McDonald Observatory, looking for pulsators. They discovered a pulsating star about 800 light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major, (called SDSS J142625.71+575218.3) fits the into this category. Its light intensity varies regularly by nearly two percent about every eight minutes.

“The discovery that one of these stars is pulsating is remarkably important,” said National Science Foundation astronomer Michael Briley. “This will allow us to probe the white dwarf’s interior, which in turn should help us solve the riddle of where the carbon white dwarfs come from and what happens to their hydrogen and helium.”

The star lies about ten degrees east northeast of Mizar, the middle star in the handle of the Big Dipper. This white dwarf has about the same mass as our Sun, but its diameter is smaller than Earth’s. The star has a temperature of 35,000 degrees Fahrenheit (19,500 C), and is only 1/600th as bright as the Sun.

Original News Source: McDonald Observatory Press Release