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Phoenix - Sol 123 (4/4) NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from Martian clouds. Spacecraft soil experiments also have provided evidence of past interaction between minerals and liquid water, processes that occur on Earth. A laser instrument designed to gather knowledge of how the atmosphere and surface interact on Mars has detected snow from clouds about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) above the spacecraft's landing site. Data show the snow vaporizing before reaching the ground. "Nothing like this view has ever been seen on Mars," said Jim Whiteway, of York University, Toronto, lead scientist for the Canadian-supplied Meteorological Station on Phoenix. "We'll be looking for signs that the snow may even reach the ground." Phoenix experiments also yielded clues pointing to calcium carbonate, the main composition of chalk, and particles that could be clay. Most carbonates and clays on Earth form only in the presence of liquid water. "We are still collecting data and have lots of analysis ahead, but we are making good progress on the big questions we set out for ourselves," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Since landing on May 25, Phoenix already has confirmed that a hard subsurface layer at its far-northern site contains water-ice. Determining whether that ice ever thaws would help answer whether the environment there has been favorable for life, a key aim of the mission. The evidence for calcium carbonate in soil samples from trenches dug by the Phoenix robotic arm comes from two laboratory instruments called the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer, or TEGA, and the wet chemistry laboratory of the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer, or MECA. "We have found carbonate," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the TEGA. "This points toward episodes of interaction with water in the past." The TEGA evidence for calcium carbonate came from a high-temperature release of carbon dioxide from soil samples. The temperature of the release matches a temperature known to decompose calcium carbonate and release carbon dioxide gas, which was identified by the instrument's mass spectrometer. The MECA evidence came from a buffering effect characteristic of calcium carbonate assessed in wet chemistry analysis of the soil. The measured concentration of calcium was exactly what would be expected for a solution buffered by calcium carbonate. Both TEGA, and the microscopy part of MECA, have turned up hints of a clay-like substance. "We are seeing smooth-surfaced, platy particles with the atomic-force microscope, not inconsistent with the appearance of clay particles," said Michael Hecht, MECA lead scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The Phoenix mission, originally planned for three months on Mars, now is in its fifth month. However, it faces a decline in solar energy that is expected to curtail and then end the lander's activities before the end of the year. Before power ceases, the Phoenix team will attempt to activate a microphone on the lander to possibly capture sounds on Mars. "For nearly three months after landing, the sun never went below the horizon at our landing site," said Barry Goldstein, JPL Phoenix project manager. "Now it is gone for more than four hours each night, and the output from our solar panels is dropping each week. Before the end of October, there won't be enough energy to keep using the robotic arm." Tags: Phoenix Mars Lander

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Phoenix - Sol 123 (3/4) NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from Martian clouds. Spacecraft soil experiments also have provided evidence of past interaction between minerals and liquid water, processes that occur on Earth. A laser instrument designed to gather knowledge of how the atmosphere and surface interact on Mars has detected snow from clouds about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) above the spacecraft's landing site. Data show the snow vaporizing before reaching the ground. "Nothing like this view has ever been seen on Mars," said Jim Whiteway, of York University, Toronto, lead scientist for the Canadian-supplied Meteorological Station on Phoenix. "We'll be looking for signs that the snow may even reach the ground." Phoenix experiments also yielded clues pointing to calcium carbonate, the main composition of chalk, and particles that could be clay. Most carbonates and clays on Earth form only in the presence of liquid water. "We are still collecting data and have lots of analysis ahead, but we are making good progress on the big questions we set out for ourselves," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Since landing on May 25, Phoenix already has confirmed that a hard subsurface layer at its far-northern site contains water-ice. Determining whether that ice ever thaws would help answer whether the environment there has been favorable for life, a key aim of the mission. The evidence for calcium carbonate in soil samples from trenches dug by the Phoenix robotic arm comes from two laboratory instruments called the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer, or TEGA, and the wet chemistry laboratory of the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer, or MECA. "We have found carbonate," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the TEGA. "This points toward episodes of interaction with water in the past." The TEGA evidence for calcium carbonate came from a high-temperature release of carbon dioxide from soil samples. The temperature of the release matches a temperature known to decompose calcium carbonate and release carbon dioxide gas, which was identified by the instrument's mass spectrometer. The MECA evidence came from a buffering effect characteristic of calcium carbonate assessed in wet chemistry analysis of the soil. The measured concentration of calcium was exactly what would be expected for a solution buffered by calcium carbonate. Both TEGA, and the microscopy part of MECA, have turned up hints of a clay-like substance. "We are seeing smooth-surfaced, platy particles with the atomic-force microscope, not inconsistent with the appearance of clay particles," said Michael Hecht, MECA lead scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The Phoenix mission, originally planned for three months on Mars, now is in its fifth month. However, it faces a decline in solar energy that is expected to curtail and then end the lander's activities before the end of the year. Before power ceases, the Phoenix team will attempt to activate a microphone on the lander to possibly capture sounds on Mars. "For nearly three months after landing, the sun never went below the horizon at our landing site," said Barry Goldstein, JPL Phoenix project manager. "Now it is gone for more than four hours each night, and the output from our solar panels is dropping each week. Before the end of October, there won't be enough energy to keep using the robotic arm." Tags: Phoenix Mars Lander

User: BrunoTheQuestionable

Phoenix - Sol 123 (2/4) NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from Martian clouds. Spacecraft soil experiments also have provided evidence of past interaction between minerals and liquid water, processes that occur on Earth. A laser instrument designed to gather knowledge of how the atmosphere and surface interact on Mars has detected snow from clouds about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) above the spacecraft's landing site. Data show the snow vaporizing before reaching the ground. "Nothing like this view has ever been seen on Mars," said Jim Whiteway, of York University, Toronto, lead scientist for the Canadian-supplied Meteorological Station on Phoenix. "We'll be looking for signs that the snow may even reach the ground." Phoenix experiments also yielded clues pointing to calcium carbonate, the main composition of chalk, and particles that could be clay. Most carbonates and clays on Earth form only in the presence of liquid water. "We are still collecting data and have lots of analysis ahead, but we are making good progress on the big questions we set out for ourselves," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Since landing on May 25, Phoenix already has confirmed that a hard subsurface layer at its far-northern site contains water-ice. Determining whether that ice ever thaws would help answer whether the environment there has been favorable for life, a key aim of the mission. The evidence for calcium carbonate in soil samples from trenches dug by the Phoenix robotic arm comes from two laboratory instruments called the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer, or TEGA, and the wet chemistry laboratory of the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer, or MECA. "We have found carbonate," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the TEGA. "This points toward episodes of interaction with water in the past." The TEGA evidence for calcium carbonate came from a high-temperature release of carbon dioxide from soil samples. The temperature of the release matches a temperature known to decompose calcium carbonate and release carbon dioxide gas, which was identified by the instrument's mass spectrometer. The MECA evidence came from a buffering effect characteristic of calcium carbonate assessed in wet chemistry analysis of the soil. The measured concentration of calcium was exactly what would be expected for a solution buffered by calcium carbonate. Both TEGA, and the microscopy part of MECA, have turned up hints of a clay-like substance. "We are seeing smooth-surfaced, platy particles with the atomic-force microscope, not inconsistent with the appearance of clay particles," said Michael Hecht, MECA lead scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The Phoenix mission, originally planned for three months on Mars, now is in its fifth month. However, it faces a decline in solar energy that is expected to curtail and then end the lander's activities before the end of the year. Before power ceases, the Phoenix team will attempt to activate a microphone on the lander to possibly capture sounds on Mars. "For nearly three months after landing, the sun never went below the horizon at our landing site," said Barry Goldstein, JPL Phoenix project manager. "Now it is gone for more than four hours each night, and the output from our solar panels is dropping each week. Before the end of October, there won't be enough energy to keep using the robotic arm." Tags: Phoenix Mars Lander

User: BrunoTheQuestionable

Phoenix - Sol 123 (1/4) NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from Martian clouds. Spacecraft soil experiments also have provided evidence of past interaction between minerals and liquid water, processes that occur on Earth. A laser instrument designed to gather knowledge of how the atmosphere and surface interact on Mars has detected snow from clouds about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) above the spacecraft's landing site. Data show the snow vaporizing before reaching the ground. "Nothing like this view has ever been seen on Mars," said Jim Whiteway, of York University, Toronto, lead scientist for the Canadian-supplied Meteorological Station on Phoenix. "We'll be looking for signs that the snow may even reach the ground." Phoenix experiments also yielded clues pointing to calcium carbonate, the main composition of chalk, and particles that could be clay. Most carbonates and clays on Earth form only in the presence of liquid water. "We are still collecting data and have lots of analysis ahead, but we are making good progress on the big questions we set out for ourselves," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Since landing on May 25, Phoenix already has confirmed that a hard subsurface layer at its far-northern site contains water-ice. Determining whether that ice ever thaws would help answer whether the environment there has been favorable for life, a key aim of the mission. The evidence for calcium carbonate in soil samples from trenches dug by the Phoenix robotic arm comes from two laboratory instruments called the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer, or TEGA, and the wet chemistry laboratory of the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer, or MECA. "We have found carbonate," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the TEGA. "This points toward episodes of interaction with water in the past." The TEGA evidence for calcium carbonate came from a high-temperature release of carbon dioxide from soil samples. The temperature of the release matches a temperature known to decompose calcium carbonate and release carbon dioxide gas, which was identified by the instrument's mass spectrometer. The MECA evidence came from a buffering effect characteristic of calcium carbonate assessed in wet chemistry analysis of the soil. The measured concentration of calcium was exactly what would be expected for a solution buffered by calcium carbonate. Both TEGA, and the microscopy part of MECA, have turned up hints of a clay-like substance. "We are seeing smooth-surfaced, platy particles with the atomic-force microscope, not inconsistent with the appearance of clay particles," said Michael Hecht, MECA lead scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The Phoenix mission, originally planned for three months on Mars, now is in its fifth month. However, it faces a decline in solar energy that is expected to curtail and then end the lander's activities before the end of the year. Before power ceases, the Phoenix team will attempt to activate a microphone on the lander to possibly capture sounds on Mars. "For nearly three months after landing, the sun never went below the horizon at our landing site," said Barry Goldstein, JPL Phoenix project manager. "Now it is gone for more than four hours each night, and the output from our solar panels is dropping each week. Before the end of October, there won't be enough energy to keep using the robotic arm." Tags: Phoenix Mars Lander

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Ares 1 Ullage Motor Test Engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., have completed first-round testing of a critical motor for NASA's new Ares I rocket. The Ares I is a two-stage rocket that will launch astronauts aboard the Orion crew capsule on missions to the International Space Station and to the moon by 2020. The ullage settling motor is a small, solid rocket motor that serves two key roles during the launch of the Ares I rocket. During first stage separation, which occurs 125.8 seconds into flight, the motor will fire for four seconds, producing the forward thrust needed to push the second, or upper, stage away from the first stage. This forward thrust also ensures the rocket's liquid fuel is properly pushed to the bottom of the upper stage fuel tank prior to ignition of the J-2X engine that powers the upper stage. The successful hot-fire test of this new development motor -- the first test in this series -- was conducted Sept. 11 at Marshall. All test objectives were achieved, bringing NASA one step closer to developing America's new space transportation system. This first series of early development testing will consist of four motors. It is scheduled to run through 2009. The second test series is planned for February 2009. "We are extremely excited about the success of this test that proves we are headed down the correct development path for this program," said Danny Davis, upper stage manager for Ares Projects at Marshall. "We have the right team in place, and we are working a design that will secure America's future in space." The word "ullage" is taken from the French term "ouillage," which is used in winemaking to describe the space between wine and the top of a storage container, such as a barrel or bottle. In this case, it refers to the space at the top of the first stage fuel tank and the need to push the fuel, or settle it, to the bottom of the tank. The ullage motor, 9 inches in diameter and 47 inches in length, is similar in design to the booster separation motor used on the space shuttle's reusable solid rocket motor. Eight ullage motors will be arranged in four pairs on the Ares I upper stage aft skirt, which also houses the reaction control system. The aft skirt is located between the upper stage core, which contains the liquid hydrogen and oxygen fuel tanks, and the interstage, which houses the rocket's roll control system. "We are very excited about this opportunity for our team to practice the basic principles of solid rocket motor design for the Ares I," said Steve Harvison, ullage settling motor design lead at Marshall. "It has been especially beneficial to newer team members who are fresh out of college and eager for this challenge. We are working every engineering aspect of these motors, from technical analysis, modeling and simulations to propellant tailoring work and hands-on developmental testing." The first Ares I test flight, called Ares I-X, is scheduled for 2009. Tags: Ares Ullage Motor Test

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Hubble COS Instrument The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) is designed to study the large-scale structure of the universe and how galaxies, stars and planets formed and evolved. It will help determine how elements needed for life such as carbon and iron first formed and how their abundances have increased over the lifetime of the universe. As a spectrograph, COS wont capture the majestic visual images that Hubble is known for, but rather it will perform spectroscopy, the science of breaking up light into its individual components. Any object that absorbs or emits light can be studied with a spectrograph to determine its temperature, density, chemical composition and velocity. A primary science objective for COS is to measure the structure and composition of the ordinary matter that is concentrated in what scientists call the cosmic web—long, narrow filaments of galaxies and intergalactic gas separated by huge voids. The cosmic web is shaped by the gravity of the mysterious, underlying cold dark matter, while ordinary matter serves as a luminous tracery of the filaments. COS will use scores of faint distant quasars as cosmic flashlights, whose beams of light have passed through the cosmic web. Absorption of this light by material in the web will reveal the characteristic spectral fingerprints of that material. This will allow Hubble observers to deduce its composition and its specific location in space. COS has two channels, the Far Ultraviolet (FUV) channel covering wavelengths from 115 to 177 nm, and the Near Ultraviolet (NUV) channel, covering 175-300 nm. Ultraviolet light, the type of radiation that causes sunburn, is more energetic than visible, optical light; and near UV refers to the part of the UV spectrum closer to the visible, just beyond the color violet. The light-sensing detectors of both channels are designed around thin micro-channel plates comprising thousands of tiny curved glass tubes, all aligned in the same direction. Simply described, incoming photons of light ultimately induce showers of electrons to be emitted from the walls of these tubes. The electron showers are accelerated, captured, and counted in electronic circuitry immediately behind the micro-channel plates. A key feature of COS—the one which makes it unique among Hubble spectrographs—is its maximized efficiency, or throughput. Each bounce of a light beam off an optical surface within an instrument takes some of the light away from the beam, reducing the throughput. This is a problem that is especially acute in the UV, and the COS FUV channel was designed specifically to minimize the number of light bounces. The incoming FUV beam makes one bounce off a selectable light-dispersing grating, and goes directly to the detector. An additional advantage within COS is the very low level of scattered light produced by its light-dispersing gratings. If astronauts are able to complete the on-orbit repair of the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) aboard Hubble, it will highly complement the COS. The all purpose STIS, installed in 1997 during Servicing Mission 2, suffered an electronics failure in 2004 and is currently in safe hold. By design, the COS does not duplicate all of STISs capabilities. Possessing more than 30 times the sensitivity of STIS for FUV observations of faint objects such as distant quasars, COS will enable key scientific programs which would not be possible using STIS. On the other hand, COS is best suited to observing point sources of light such as stars and quasars, while STIS has the unique ability to observe the spectrum of light across spatially extended objects such as galaxies and nebulae. Should STIS be repaired, the two spectrographs working in tandem will provide astronomers with a full set of spectroscopic tools for astrophysical research. COS will be installed in the instrument bay currently occupied by COSTAR, the set of corrector mirrors on deployable arms that provided corrected light beams to the first generation of Hubble instruments after SM1 in 1993. Astronauts will store the no longer needed COSTAR instrument aboard the shuttle for its return to Earth. Tags: Hubble COS Instrument

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Hubble WFC3 Camera The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) project was originally conceived to only replace the capabilities of an aging WFPC2 instrument. During the later phases of study for the instrument however, it became clear with the advancement of technologies and careful planning, WFC3 could substantially enhance Hubble's abilities by adding a second channel (in the near-IR range). Adding a second channel of this type is almost like adding another instrument to Hubble. Dual-Channels for a Wide Spectral Range 1) The Ultraviolet-Visible (UVis) Channel: Covers a wavelength range of 200-1000 nanometers. This includes the visible spectrum, part of the near-ultraviolet, and a portion of near-infrared. 2) The Infrared (IR) Channel: Covers a wavelength range of 800-1700 nanometers. It will have the greatest sensitivity in the near-infrared range of all Hubble's instruments. With these two channels, WFC3 will achieve excellent panchromatic (full - spectrum) imaging. Stellar objects are not just in the visible spectrum, but also exist in the blue (near-UV) and red (near-IR) extremes. WFC3 was designed to study light in these regions of the spectrum better than Hubble's current capabilities. Resolution and Field-of-View Because of advances in detector technology, WFC3's imaging capability will be the best yet. One of the most important specifications for Hubble's instruments is resolution. The better the resolution (smaller value), the more detail can be achieved when imaging stellar objects. It is measured in angle-size per pixel. Below is an example of a pixel with a 0.13 arcsec resolution. 1) UVis Channel --- Resolution = .04 arcsec/pixel The UVis channel will produce images that are 4096x4096 pixels. Each pixel receives light from a 0.04x0.04 arcsec patch of sky. With all the pixels, that makes a 160x160 arcsec field of view. 2) IR Channel --- Resolution = .13 arcsec/pixel The IR channel will produce images that are 1024x1024 pixels. Each pixel receives light from a 0.12x0.14 arcsec patch of sky. With all the pixels, that makes a 123x139 arcsec field of view. WFC3 is superior to WFPC2 in resolution and field-of-view. It will be comparable to ACS (the most advanced instrument currently aboard Hubble) and excel in some areas. Plus, its IR-channel will be a great enhancement to Hubble's infrared capabilities. Tags: Hubble HST WFC3

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Hubble SM4 Overview The Hubble Space Telescope, orbiting 353 miles (569 km) above the surface of the Earth, was the first telescope designed to be visited in space by astronauts to perform repairs, replace parts, and update its technology with new instruments. With each servicing mission, Hubble's power increases, making it one of the most enduring and successful space missions ever undertaken. There have been four previous servicing missions to Hubble: Servicing Missions 1, 2, 3A and 3B. The upcoming Servicing Mission 4 (SM4) scheduled for October 2008 will be the final trip to Hubble. The astronauts' goals for SM4 are to install new instruments, replace degraded systems, and bring inactive instruments back to life. Tags: Hubble HST Servicing Mission SM4 STS-125

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Phoenix - Sol 70 Phoenix Mars mission scientists spoke on 5th August 2008, on research in progress concerning an ongoing investigation of perchlorate salts detected in soil analyzed by the wet chemistry laboratory aboard NASA's Phoenix Lander. "Finding perchlorates is neither good nor bad for life, but it does make us reassess how we think about life on Mars," said Michael Hecht of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., lead scientist for the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA), the instrument that includes the wet chemistry laboratory. If confirmed, the result is exciting, Hecht said, "because different types of perchlorate salts have interesting properties that may bear on the way things work on Mars if -- and that's a big 'if ' -- the results from our two teaspoons of soil are representative of all of Mars, or at least a significant portion of the planet." The Phoenix team had wanted to check the finding with another lander instrument, the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA), which heats soil and analyzes gases driven off. But as that TEGA experiment was underway last week, speculative news reports surfaced claiming the team was holding back a major finding regarding habitability on Mars. "The Phoenix project has decided to take an unusual step" in talking about the research when its scientists are only about half-way through the data collection phase and have not yet had time to complete data analysis or perform needed laboratory work, said Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Scientists are still at the stage where they are examining multiple hypotheses, given evidence that the soil contains perchlorate. "We decided to show the public science in action because of the extreme interest in the Phoenix mission, which is searching for a habitable environment on the northern plains of Mars," Smith added. "Right now, we don't know whether finding perchlorate is good news or bad news for possible life on Mars." Perchlorate is an ion, or charged particle, that consists of an atom of chlorine surrounded by four oxygen atoms. It is an oxidant, that is, it can release oxygen, but it is not a powerful one. Perchlorates are found naturally on Earth at such places as Chile's hyper-arid Atacama Desert. The compounds are quite stable and do not destroy organic material under normal circumstances. Some microorganisms on Earth are fueled by processes that involve perchlorates, and some plants concentrate the substance. Perchlorates are also used in rocket fuel and fireworks. Perchlorate was discovered with a multi-use sensor that detects perchlorate, nitrate and other ions. The MECA team saw the perchlorate signal in a sample taken from the Dodo-Goldilocks trench on June 25, or Sol 30, or the 30th Martian day of the mission after landing, and again in another sample taken from the Snow White trench on July 6, or Sol 41. When TEGA heated a sample of soil dug from the Dodo-Goldilocks trench on Sol 25 to high temperature, it detected an oxygen release, said TEGA lead scientist William Boynton of the University of Arizona. Perchlorate could be one of several possible sources of this oxygen, he said. Late last week, when TEGA analyzed another sample, this one from the Snow White trench, the TEGA team looked for chlorine gas. The instrument detected none. "Had we seen it, the identification of perchlorate would be absolutely clear, but in this run we did not see any chlorine gas. We may have been analyzing a perchlorate salt that doesn't release chlorine gas upon heating," Boynton said. "There's nothing in the TEGA data that contradicts MECA's finding of perchlorates." As the Phoenix team continues its investigation of the artic soil, the TEGA instrument will attempt to validate the perchlorate discovery and determine its concentration and properties. Tags: Phoenix Mars Lander Perchlorate

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The Return To The Moon A series of Design Reference Missions was established to facilitate the derivation of requirements and the allocation of functionality between the major architecture elements. Three of the DRMs were for lunar missions: - Lunar Sortie Crew with Cargo The architecture provides the capability for up to four crew members to explore any site on the Moon (i.e., global access) for up to 7 days. These missions, referred to as lunar sorties, are analogous to the Apollo surface missions and demonstrate the capability of the architecture to land humans on the Moon, operate for a limited period on the surface, and safely return humans to Earth. Sortie missions also allow for exploration of high-interest science sites or scouting of future lunar outpost locations. Such a mission is assumed not to require the aid of pre-positioned lunar surface infrastructure such as habitats or power stations to perform the mission. During a sortie, the crew has the capability to perform daily EVAs with all crew members egressing from the vehicle through an airlock. Performing EVAs in pairs with all four crew members on the surface every day maximizes the scientific and operational value of the mission. - Lunar Outpost Cargo Delivery The architecture provides the capability to deliver 20 mT of cargo to the lunar surface in a single mission using the elements of the human lunar transportation system. This capability is used to deliver surface infrastructure needed for lunar outpost buildup (habitats, power systems, communications, mobility, In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) pilot plants, etc.), as well as periodic logistics resupply packages to support a continuous human presence. - Lunar Outpost Crew with Cargo A primary objective of the lunar architecture is to establish a continuous human presence on the lunar surface to accomplish exploration and science goals. This capability will be established as quickly as possible following the return of humans to the Moon. To best accomplish science and ISRU goals, the outpost is expected to be located at the lunar south pole. The primary purpose of the mission is to transfer up to four crew members and supplies in a single mission to the outpost site for expeditions lasting up to 6 months. Every 6 months, a new crew will arrive at the outpost, and the crew already stationed there will return to Earth. Tags: NASA Constellation Moon

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Phoenix - Sol 31 The Phoenix Mars Lander performed its first wet chemistry experiment on Martian soil flawlessly, returning a wealth of data that for Phoenix scientists was like winning the lottery. "We are awash in chemistry data," said Michael Hecht. "We're trying to understand what is the chemistry of wet soil on Mars, what's dissolved in it, how acidic or alkaline it is. With the results we received from Phoenix yesterday, we could begin to tell what aspects of the soil might support life." "This is the first wet-chemical analysis ever done on Mars or any planet, other than Earth," said Sam Kounaves. About 80 percent of Phoenix's first, two-day wet chemistry experiment is now complete. Phoenix has three more wet-chemistry cells for use later in the mission. "This soil appears to be a close analog to surface soils found in the upper dry valleys in Antarctica," Kouvanes said. "The alkalinity of the soil at this location is definitely striking. At this specific location, one-inch into the surface layer, the soil is very basic, with a pH of between eight and nine. We also found a variety of components of salts that we haven't had time to analyze and identify yet, but that include magnesium, sodium, potassium and chloride." "This is more evidence for water because salts are there. We also found a reasonable number of nutrients, or chemicals needed by life as we know it," Kounaves said. "Over time, I've come to the conclusion that the amazing thing about Mars is not that it's an alien world, but that in many aspects, like mineralogy, it's very much like Earth." The Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA), has baked its first soil sample to 1,000 degrees Celsius. Never before has a soil sample from another world been baked to such high heat. TEGA scientists have begun analyzing the gases released at a range of temperatures to identify the chemical make-up of soil and ice. Analysis is a complicated, weeks-long process. But "the scientific data coming out of the instrument have been just spectacular," said William Boynton. "At this point, we can say that the soil has clearly interacted with water in the past. We don't know whether that interaction occurred in this particular area in the northern polar region, or whether it might have happened elsewhere and blown up to this area as dust." Leslie Tamppari tallied what Phoenix has accomplished during the first 30 Martian days of its mission, and outlined future plans. The Stereo Surface Imager has by now completed about 55 percent of its three-color, 360-degree panorama of the Phoenix landing site, Tamppari said. Phoenix has analyzed two samples in its optical microscope as well as first samples in both TEGA and the wet chemistry laboratory. Phoenix has been collecting information daily on clouds, dust, winds, temperatures and pressures in the atmosphere, as well as taking first nighttime atmospheric measurements. Lander cameras confirmed that white chunks exposed during trench digging were frozen water ice because they sublimated, or vaporized, over a few days. The Phoenix robotic arm dug and sampled, and will continue to dig and sample, at the 'Snow White' trench in the center of a polygon in the polygonal terrain. "We believe this is the best place for creating a profile of the surface from the top down to the anticipated icy layer," Tamppari said. "This is the plan we wanted to do when we proposed the mission many years ago. We wanted a place just like this where we could sample the soil down to the possible ice layer." Tags: Phoenix Mars Lander

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OSTM Launch A new NASA-French space agency oceanography satellite launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on a globe-circling voyage to continue charting sea level, a vital indicator of global climate change. The mission will return a vast amount of new data that will improve weather, climate and ocean forecasts. With a thunderous roar and fiery glow, the Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2 satellite arced through the blackness of an early central coastal California morning at 12:46 a.m. PDT on 20th June 2008, climbing into space atop a Delta II rocket. Fifty-five minutes later, OSTM/Jason 2 separated from the rocket's second stage, and then unfurled its twin sets of solar arrays. Ground controllers successfully acquired the spacecraft's signals. Initial telemetry reports show it to be in excellent health. OSTM/Jason 2 entered orbit about 10 to 15 kilometers below Jason 1. The new spacecraft will gradually use its thrusters to raise itself into the same 1,336-kilometer orbital altitude as Jason 1 and position itself to follow Jason 1's ground track, orbiting about 60 seconds behind Jason 1. The two spacecraft will fly in formation, making nearly simultaneous measurements for about six months to allow scientists to precisely calibrate OSTM/Jason 2's instruments. Once cross-calibration is complete, Jason 1 will alter course, adjusting its orbit so that its ground tracks fall midway between those of OSTM/Jason 2. Together, the two spacecraft will double global data coverage. This tandem mission will improve our knowledge of tides in coastal and shallow seas and internal tides in the open ocean, while improving our understanding of ocean currents and eddies. Tags: OSTM Ocean Surface Topography Mission Launch Liftoff

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Ocean Surface Topography Mission The Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 is an international satellite mission that will extend into the next decade the continuous climate record of sea surface height measurements begun in 1992 by the joint NASA/Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) Topex/Poseidon mission and continued in 2001 by the NASA/CNES Jason-1 mission. This multi-decadal record has already helped scientists study global sea level rise and better understand how ocean circula-tion and climate change are related. Developed and proven through the joint efforts of NASA and CNES, high-precision ocean altimetry measures the distance between a satellite and the ocean surface to within a few centimeters. Accurate observations of variations in sea surface height—also known as ocean topography—provide scientists with information about the speed and direction of ocean currents and heat stored in the ocean. This information, in turn, reveals global climate variations. With OSTM/Jason-2, ocean altimetry has come of age. The mission will serve as a bridge to transition collection of these measurements to the world's weather and climate forecasting agencies, which will use them for short- and seasonal-to-long-range weather and climate forecasting. Sea level rise is one of the most important consequences and indicators of global climate change. From Topex/Poseidon and Jason-1 we know mean sea level has risen by about three millimeters a year since 1993. This is about twice the estimates from tide gauges for the previous century, indicating a possible recent acceleration. OSTM/Jason-2 will further monitor this trend and allow us to better understand year-to-year variations. The speedup of ice melting in Greenland and Antarctica is a wild card in predicting future sea level rise. Measurements from Jason-1 and OSTM/Jason-2, coupled with information from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) mission, will provide crucial information on the relative contributions of glacier melting and ocean heating to sea level change. Earth's oceans are a thermostat for our planet, keeping it from heating up quickly. More than 80 percent of the heat from global warming over the past 50 years has been absorbed by the oceans. Scientists want to know how much more heat the oceans can absorb, and how the warmer water affects Earth's atmosphere. OSTM/Jason-2 will help them better calculate the oceans' ability to store heat. The mission will also allow us to better understand large-scale climate phenomena like El Niño and La Niña, which can have wide-reaching effects. OSTM/Jason-2 data will be used in applications as diverse as, for example, routing ships, improving the safety and efficiency of offshore industry operations, managing fisheries, forecast-ing hurricanes and monitoring river and lake levels. OSTM/Jason-2's primary payload includes five instruments similar to those aboard Jason-1, along with three experimental instruments. Its main instrument is an altimeter that precisely measures the distance from the satellite to the ocean surface. Its radiometer measures the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, which can distort the altimeter measurements. Three location systems combine to measure the satellite's precise position in orbit. Instrument advances since Jason-1 will allow scientists to monitor the ocean in coastal regions with increased accuracy, almost 50 percent closer to coastlines that are home to nearly half of Earth's population than before. OSTM/Jason-2 is designed to last at least three years. After its launch from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket, OSTM/Jason-2 will be placed in the same orbit (1,336 kilometers) as Jason-1 at an inclination of 66 degrees to the equator. It will repeat its ground track every 10 days, covering 95 percent of the world's ice-free oceans. A tandem mission with Jason-1 will further improve tide models in coastal and shallow seas and help scientists better understand the dynamics of ocean currents and eddies. Tags: OSTM Ocean Surface Topography Mission Jason-2

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STS-124 Landing Discovery landed at KSC on time at 11:15 a.m. EDT on 14th June 2008. Commander Mark Kelly, Pilot Ken Ham and Mission Specialists Karen Nyberg, Ron Garan, Mike Fossum and Japan's Akihiko Hoshide surveyed the heat shield on the belly of Discovery as ground crews serviced the spacecraft and NASA officials talked to them about the mission and landing. Space station resident Garrett Reisman also returned with Discovery after three months in orbit. "It was a really exciting mission and we're glad to be back here in Florida," Kelly said soon after Discovery landed. The congratulatory spirit was shared by NASA officials who hailed the flight. "I can't think of a mission really that's been better than this one," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator of Space Operations. "We're starting to break that tie to planet Earth and get out and do what exploration is". Tags: STS-124 STS124 Landing Touchdown Space Shuttle Discovery

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Phoenix - Sol 18 New observations from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander provide the most magnified view ever seen of Martian soil, showing particles clumping together even at the smallest visible scale. Two instruments on the lander deck -- a microscope and a bake-and-sniff analyzer -- have begun inspecting soil samples delivered by the scoop on Phoenix's Robotic Arm. "This is the first time since the Viking missions three decades ago that a sample is being studied inside an instrument on Mars," said Peter Smith. Stickiness of the soil at the Phoenix site has presented challenges for delivering samples, but also presents scientific opportunities. "Understanding the soil is a major goal of this mission and the soil is a bit different than we expected," Smith said. "There could be real discoveries to come as we analyze this soil with our various instruments. We have just the right instruments for the job." Images from Phoenix's Optical Microscope show nearly 1,000 separate soil particles, down to sizes smaller than one-tenth the diameter of a human hair. At least four distinct minerals are seen. "It's been more than 11 years since we had the idea to send a microscope to Mars and I'm absolutely gobsmacked that we're now looking at the soil of Mars at a resolution that has never been seen before," said Tom Pike. The sample includes some larger, black, glassy particles as well as smaller reddish ones. "We may be looking at a history of the soil," said Pike. "It appears that original particles of volcanic glass have weathered down to smaller particles with higher concentration of iron." The fine particles in the soil sample closely resemble particles of airborne dust examined earlier by the microscope. "We are taking a high-quality, 360-degree look at all of Mars that we can see from our landing site in color and stereo," said Mark Lemmon. "These images are important to provide the context of where the lander is on the surface. The panorama also allows us to look beyond our workspace to see how the polygon structures connect with the rest of the area. We can identify interesting things beyond our reach and then use the camera's filters to investigate their properties from afar." Tags: Phoenix Mars Lander

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GLAST Launch At 12:05 p.m. EDT on 11th June 2008, the Delta II rocket easily lifted the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) spacecraft off the launch pad, out of smoke and clouds and into a beautiful Florida sky headed for space. The second firing of the second-stage engine was confirmed as was successful spacecraft separation. Applause rippled through the launch control center as separation confirmation was received. GLAST is now on its own with its solar arrays deployed and placed into a circular orbit 350 miles above the Earth, prepared to monitor the universe and the mysterious gamma-ray bursts. GLAST is a powerful space observatory that will explore the most extreme environments in the universe, and search for signs of new laws of physics and what composes the mysterious dark matter, explain how black holes accelerate immense jets of material to nearly light speed, and help crack the mysteries of the staggeringly powerful explosions known as gamma-ray bursts. With high sensitivity GLAST is the first imaging gamma-ray observatory to survey the entire sky every day. It will give scientists a unique opportunity to learn about the ever-changing universe at extreme energies. GLAST will detect thousands of gamma-ray sources, most of which will be supermassive black holes in the cores of distant galaxies. Tags: GLAST Launch Liftoff

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GLAST Instruments The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) is an international and multi-agency space observatory that will study the cosmos in the photon energy range of 8,000 electronvolts (8 keV) to greater than 300 billion electronvolts (300 GeV). An electronvolt is a unit of energy close to that of visible light, so GLAST will catch photons with energies thousands to hundreds of billions of times greater than those we see with our eyes (1 keV = 1,000 eV, 1 MeV = 1,000,000 eV, 1 GeV = 1,000,000,000 eV). GLAST carries two instruments: the Large Area Telescope (LAT) and the GLAST Burst Monitor (GBM). The LAT is GLAST's primary instrument, and the GBM is the complementary instrument. The LAT has four subsystems that work together to detect gamma rays and to reject signals from the intense bombardment of cosmic rays. For every gamma ray that enters the LAT, it will have to filter out 100,000 to one million cosmic rays, charged particles that resemble the particles produced by gamma rays. The four main subsystems are: - Tracker - Calorimeter - Anticoincidence Detector - Data Acquisition System With its very large field of view, the LAT sees about 20% of the sky at any given moment. In sky-survey mode, which is the primary observing mode, the LAT will cover the entire sky every three hours. The observatory can also be pointed at targets of opportunity, and can slew autonomously when either instrument detects sufficiently bright gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The LAT is at least 30 times more sensitive than any previous gamma-ray instrument flown in space, and will detect thousands of new sources during GLAST's five-year primary mission. The GBM consists of 12 detectors made of sodium iodide for catching X rays and low-energy gamma rays, and two detectors made of bismuth germanate for high-energy gamma rays. Together, they detect cover X rays and gamma rays in the energy range between 8 keV to 30 MeV, overlapping with the LAT's lower-energy limit. The GBM detectors will view the entire sky not occulted by Earth, and are expected to pick up about 200 GRBs per year, as well as solar flares and other transient events. The combination of the GBM and the LAT provides a powerful tool for studying GRBs over a very wide range of energies. The launch of the United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket carrying NASA's GLAST spacecraft is now set for 11th June 2008. Tags: GLAST Instruments LAT GBM

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Phoenix - Sol 9 A view of the ground underneath NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander adds to evidence that descent thrusters dispersed overlying soil and exposed a harder substrate that may be ice. The image received from the spacecraft's Robotic Arm Camera shows patches of smooth and level surfaces beneath the thrusters. "This suggests we have an ice table under a thin layer of loose soil," said the lead scientist for the Robotic Arm Camera, Horst Uwe Keller of Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany. "We were expecting to find ice within two to six inches of the surface," said Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, principal investigator for Phoenix. "The thrusters have excavated two to six inches and, sure enough, we see something that looks like ice. It's not impossible that it's something else, but our leading interpretation is ice." One week after landing on far-northern Mars, NASA Phoenix spacecraft lifted its first scoop of Martian soil as a test of the lander's Robotic Arm. The practice scoop was emptied onto a designated dump area on the ground after the Robotic Arm Camera photographed the soil inside the scoop. The Phoenix team plans to have the arm deliver its next scoopful, later this week, to an instrument that heats and sniffs the sample to identify ingredients. A glint of bright material appears in the scooped up soil and in the hole from which it came. "That bright material might be ice or salt. We're eager to do testing of the next three surface samples collected nearby to learn more about it," said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, Phoenix co-investigator for the Robotic Arm. The camera on the arm examined the lander's first scoop of Martian soil. "The camera has its own red, green and blue lights, and we combine separate images taken with different illumination to create color images," said the University of Arizona's Pat Woida, senior engineer on the Phoenix team. Tags: Phoenix Mars Lander

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Kibo Installation The crews of space shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station wrapped up a busy day on 3rd June 2008, completing a six-hour, 48-minute spacewalk and expanding the Japanese segment of the orbital outpost. Mission specialists Mike Fossum and Ron Garan completed STS-124's first spacewalk at 7:10 p.m. EDT. During the excursion, the pair retrieved a shuttle inspection tool, serviced and inspected components of a solar alpha rotary joint and prepared the largest component of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory for installation on the International Space Station. The spacewalkers first transferred the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) from the station's truss to space shuttle Discovery. The OBSS, which attaches to the shuttle's robotic arm for detailed inspection of the shuttle's heat shield, was left at the station during the previous shuttle mission to provide room for the giant Kibo module in Discovery's payload bay. Next, the spacewalkers prepared Kibo's Japanese Pressurized Module (JPM) for installation. After inspecting the common berthing mechanism on the Harmony Node's left side and opening a window cover, Fossum and Garan worked together in the shuttle's cargo bay to remove contamination covers from the JPM's docking surfaces. Fossum also disconnected heater cables and removed locking bolts from the shutters of the JPM's forward window. For their final tasks, Garan and Fossum moved to the station's starboard solar alpha rotary joint, which has been operating in a degraded mode due to debris contamination. Garan installed a replacement of one of the joint's 12 trundle bearing assemblies. Meanwhile, Fossum inspected a depression on the joint's race ring and tried out several techniques for cleaning the debris. Mission specialists Karen Nyberg and Akihiko Hoshide used the station's robotic arm to remove the JPM from the shuttle's payload bay and install it on Harmony, completing the task at 7:01 p.m. On the following day, the crew powered up the newly installed JPM and opened the hatches to begin outfitting the lab. (X9 speed) Tags: Kibo JPM Japanese Pressurized Module Installation ISS STS-124

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STS-124 Launch Commander Mark Kelly promised "the greatest show on Earth," and space shuttle Discovery delivered with a thundering, fiery arc stretching over Florida's East Coast on 31st May 2008. The launch began a 14-day mission for Kelly and his crew of seven astronauts as they install a new Japanese-built laboratory module on the International Space Station. As the astronauts got used to their new surroundings in space, NASA officials on Earth basked in the satisfaction of a flawless countdown and liftoff from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "(It was) obviously a huge day," said NASA Administrator Mike Griffin. "A huge day for the space station partnership, for the Japanese Space Agency, for NASA and, really, for the people who hoped to see the space station do what it was designed to do, to be a place in orbit where we can learn to live and work in space." Neither weather nor technical problems cropped up as the launch team and mission controllers went through their checks on the way to an on-time liftoff at 5:02 p.m. EDT. "I reveled in the (launch) team's performance," said Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director. "It's really a pleasure to have my job and just sit back and watch the launch team." Next up for the STS-124 mission is a two-day chase across space to link up with the International Space Station. It will take the crew several hours of robotic arm maneuvers and spacewalks to connect the Pressurized Module of Japan's Kibo laboratory to the station. The 36-foot-long module is the largest habitable section to be launched to the orbiting research post. Tags: Space Shuttle STS-124 Launch Liftoff

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