Fostering Curiosity: Mars Express relays rocky images

For the first time, ESA’s Mars orbiter has relayed scientific data from NASA’s Curiosity rover on the Red Planet’s surface. The data included detailed images of ‘Rocknest3’ and were received by ESA’s deep-space antenna in Australia.

It was a small but significant step in interplanetary cooperation between space agencies.

Early on the morning of 6 October, ESA’s Mars Express looked down as it orbited the planet, lining up its lander communication antenna to point at Curiosity far below on the surface. For 15 minutes, the NASA rover transmitted scientific data up to the ESA satellite. A few hours later, Mars Express slewed to point its high-gain antenna toward Earth and began down linking the precious information to the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, via the Agency’s 35 m-diameter antenna in New Norcia, Australia. 

The data were immediately made available to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California for processing and analysis, proving again that NASA’s amazing new rover can talk with Europe’s veteran Mars orbiter.

Curiosity’s ChemCam images Rocknest3

The information included a pair of tremendously interesting images acquired on 4 October by Curiosity’s ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager camera. ChemCam comprises the camera together with a Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometer, which fires a laser at targets and analyses the chemical composition of the vaporised material.

The laser zaps areas smaller than 1 mm across on the surface of martian rocks and soils, and then the spectrometer provides information on the minerals and microstructures in the rocks.   

Rocknest3 relayed by Mars Express

Outstanding image quality

The first image (at top of article) was taken before a series of five ChemCam laser blasts and the second image (at right) was taken after. The image is centred on the fifth observation point. “The quality of these images from ChemCam is outstanding, and the mosaic image of the spectrometer analyses has been essential for scientific interpretation of the data,” says Sylvestre Maurice, Deputy Principal Investigator for ChemCam at France’s Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP).

“This combination of imaging and analysis has demonstrated its potential for future missions.”  

Laser targets on Rocknest3

ChemCam laser targets

A third image, relayed separately by NASA, indicates the locations of the laser target points on Rocknest3, as seen by the RMI camera. ‘Rocknest’ is the area where Curiosity stopped for a month to perform its first mobile laboratory analyses on soil scooped from a small sand dune. Rocknest3 was a convenient nearby target where ChemCam made more than 30 observations using 1500 laser shots.

A wide-angle context image was acquired by Curiosity’s MastCam and shows Rocknest3 as targeted by ChemCam. Rocknest3 is about 10 x 40 cm, or roughly the size of a shoe box.

Fostering Curiosity – and others

Rocknest3

ESA’s Mars orbiter has also relayed data for NASA’s other surface missions – Phoenix, Spirit and Opportunity – since 2004, and it relayed Curiosity’s radio signal during its arrival at Mars last August. During the Curiosity mission, Mars Express is set to provide additional relay slots, while maintaining its own scientific observation programme, under an ESA-NASA support agreement.

It can also rapidly provide relay services in case of unavailability of NASA’s own relay orbiter or if there is a problem on the rover itself. 

Interplanetary cooperation

“ESA–NASA cooperation at Mars is a continuing success, and comes after both sides have worked diligently for a number of years to set technical and engineering standards to enable sharing data between spacecraft, networks and ground stations,” says Mars Express Spacecraft Operations Manager Michel Denis. “Exploring Mars is a huge challenge, and space agencies are working to boost cooperation and mutual support for current and upcoming missions. It’s the way of the future.”

For further information visit: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMZ7ZB1W9H_index_2.html

Do missing Jupiters mean massive comet belts?

Using ESA’s Herschel space observatory, astronomers have discovered vast comet belts surrounding two nearby planetary systems known to host only Earth-to-Neptune-mass worlds. The comet reservoirs could have delivered life-giving oceans to the innermost planets.

In a previous Herschel study, scientists found that the dusty belt surrounding nearby star Fomalhaut must be maintained by collisions between comets. In the new Herschel study, two more nearby planetary systems – GJ 581 and 61 Vir – have been found to host vast amounts of cometary debris.

Herschel detected the signatures of cold dust at 200ºC below freezing, in quantities that mean these systems must have at least 10 times more comets than in our own Solar System’s Kuiper Belt. GJ 581, or Gliese 581, is a low-mass M dwarf star, the most common type of star in the Galaxy. Earlier studies have shown that it hosts at least four planets, including one that resides in the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ – the distance from the central sun where liquid surface water could exist.

Two planets are confirmed around G-type star 61 Vir, which is just a little less massive than our Sun. The planets in both systems are known as ‘super-Earths’, covering a range of masses between 2 and 18 times that of Earth. Interestingly, however, there is no evidence for giant Jupiter- or Saturn-mass planets in either system.   

Debris disc around 61 Vir

The gravitational interplay between Jupiter and Saturn in our own Solar System is thought to have been responsible for disrupting a once highly populated Kuiper Belt, sending a deluge of comets towards the inner planets in a cataclysmic event that lasted several million years.

“The new observations are giving us a clue: they’re saying that in the Solar System we have giant planets and a relatively sparse Kuiper Belt, but systems with only low-mass planets often have much denser Kuiper belts,” says Dr Mark Wyatt from the University of Cambridge, lead author of the paper focusing on the debris disc around 61 Vir.

“We think that may be because the absence of a Jupiter in the low-mass planet systems allows them to avoid a dramatic heavy bombardment event, and instead experience a gradual rain of comets over billions of years.” “For an older star like GJ 581, which is at least two billion years old, enough time has elapsed for such a gradual rain of comets to deliver a sizable amount of water to the innermost planets, which is of particular importance for the planet residing in the star’s habitable zone,” adds Dr Jean-Francois Lestrade of the Observatoire de Paris who led the work on GJ 581.

However, in order to produce the vast amount of dust seen by Herschel, collisions between the comets are needed, which could be triggered by a Neptune-sized planet residing close to the disc. “Simulations show us that the known close-in planets in each of these systems cannot do the job, but a similarly-sized planet located much further from the star – currently beyond the reach of current detection campaigns – would be able to stir the disc to make it dusty and observable,” says Dr Lestrade.

“Herschel is finding a correlation between the presence of massive debris discs and planetary systems with no Jupiter-class planets, which offers a clue to our understanding of how planetary systems form and evolve,” says Göran Pilbratt, ESA’s Herschel project scientist.

For further information visit: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMVDXDQZ9H_index_2.html

Astronomers Directly Image Massive Star's 'Super-Jupiter'

This false-color near-infrared image has been processed to remove most of the scattered light from the star Kappa Andromedae (masked out at center). The "super-Jupiter" companion, Kappa Andromedae b (upper left), lies at a projected distance of about 55 times the average distance between Earth and the sun and about 1.8 times farther than Neptune, whose orbit is shown for comparison (dashed circle). The white region marking the companion indicates a signal present in all near-infrared wavelengths, while colored blobs represent residual noise. The Subaru Telescope in Hawaii captured the image in July. Credit: NOAJ/Subaru/J. Carson, College of Charleston. For a larger version of this image please go here. 

Astronomers using infrared data from the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii have discovered a "super-Jupiter" around the bright star Kappa Andromedae, which now holds the record for the most massive star known to host a directly imaged planet or lightweight brown dwarf companion. Designated Kappa Andromedae b (Kappa and b, for short), the new object has a mass about 12.8 times greater than Jupiter's.

This places it teetering on the dividing line that separates the most massive planets from the lowest-mass brown dwarfs. That ambiguity is one of the object's charms, say researchers, who call it a super-Jupiter to embrace both possibilities.

"According to conventional models of planetary formation, Kappa And b falls just shy of being able to generate energy by fusion, at which point it would be considered a brown dwarf rather than a planet," said Michael McElwain, a member of the discovery team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

"But this isn't definitive, and other considerations could nudge the object across the line into brown dwarf territory."Massive planets slowly radiate the heat leftover from their own formation. For example, the planet Jupiter emits about twice the energy it receives from the sun.

But if the object is massive enough, it's able to produce energy internally by fusing a heavy form of hydrogen called deuterium. (Stars like the sun, on the other hand, produce energy through a similar process that fuses the lighter and much more common form of hydrogen.)The theoretical mass where deuterium fusion can occur - about 13 Jupiters - marks the lowest possible mass for a brown dwarf.

"Kappa And b, the previously imaged planets around HR 8799 and Beta Pictoris, and the most massive planets discovered by non-imaging techniques likely all represent a class of object that formed in much the same way as lower-mass exoplanets," said lead researcher Joseph Carson, an astronomer at the College of Charleston, S.C., and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany.

The discovery of Kappa And b also allows astronomers to explore another theoretical limit. Astronomers have argued that large stars likely produce large planets, but experts predict that this stellar scaling can only extend so far, perhaps to stars with just a few times the sun's mass. The more massive a young star is, the brighter and hotter it becomes, resulting in powerful radiation that could disrupt the formation of planets within a circumstellar disk of gas and dust.

"This object demonstrates that stars as large as Kappa And, with 2.5 times the sun's mass, remain fully capable of producing planets," Carson adds. The research is part of the Strategic Explorations of Exoplanets and Disks with Subaru (SEEDS), a five-year effort to directly image extra solar planets and protoplanetary disks around several hundred nearby stars using the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Direct imaging of exoplanets is rare because the dim objects are usually lost in the star's brilliant glare.

The SEEDS project images at near-infrared wavelengths using the telescope's adaptive optics system, which compensates for the smearing effects of Earth's atmosphere, in concert with its High Contrast Instrument for the Subaru Next Generation Adaptive Optics and Infrared Camera and Spectrograph.

Young star systems are attractive targets for direct exoplanet imaging because young planets have not been around long enough to lose much of the heat from their formation, which enhances their brightness in the infrared.

The team focused on the star Kappa And because of its relative youth - estimated at the tender age of 30 million years, or just 0.7 percent the age of our solar system, based on its likely membership in a stellar group known as the Columba Association.

The B9-type star is located 170 light-years away in the direction of the constellation Andromeda and is visible to the unaided eye.

For further information visit: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Astronomers_Directly_Image_Massive_Stars_Super_Jupiter_999.html

Three ISS crew return to Earth in Russian capsule

Three astronauts touched down on the snowy steppes of Kazakhstan on Monday in a flawless pre-dawn landing aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule after spending over four months aboard the International Space Station (ISS).Russia's Yuri Malenchenko, Sunita Williams of the US and Akihiko Hoshide of Japan touched down as scheduled just before 0200 GMT, the Russian Space Flight Control Centre announced as the message "Landing Accomplished" was flashed on a giant screen.

The successful landing came after fears it could be postponed after workers in the Moscow region on Wednesday accidentally cut through a cable providing communications between Russia's mission control and the ISS.The three landed an hour before sunrise a few kilometres (miles) from the target northeast of Arkalyk in central Kazakhstan, a Central Asian ex-Soviet republic, an official said on NASA TV which showed the landing.

After stepping out of the capsule one by one, the three were placed side by side on a special seat and covered with a blue blanket to protect them from the cold and falling snow, with the outside temperature at around minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit).They appeared in good shape, with the American and the Japanese astronauts smiling for the cameras and the officials who greeted them.

The Russian cosmonaut Malenchenko said the return to Earth had gone "admirably" well in reply to a journalist who asked him to say a few words. Malenchenko, 50, had just completed his fifth space mission, while the other two had been on their second mission. The team were then taken to a tent set up nearby to undergo medical tests.

A sign that read "Landing place of space vessel Soyuz TMA-05" was hammered into the ground by local officials. Three planes, 12 helicopters and six emergency vehicles were mobilised for the landing mission, RIA Novosti news agency reported."All the operations in leaving orbit and landing went smoothly. The crew members who returned to Earth are feeling well," the Russian mission control said in a statement.

The three ISS crew members had been on the space station since July. They will be replaced by a new team that blasts off December 19 in a Soyuz vessel from Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan. It will be made up of Russian Roman Romanenko, American Thomas Marshburn and Canadian Chris Hadfield.

For further information visit: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Three_ISS_crew_return_to_Earth_in_Russian_capsule_999.html

EchoStar and Arianespace sign new satellite launch services contract

EchoStar and Arianespace have reached an agreement to launch multiple new satellites over a multi-year period from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana. The new contract will provide EchoStar with launch capacity and flexibility for its industry-leading satellite program.

"In July, EchoStar's wholly owned subsidiary, Hughes completed the successful launch of EchoStar XVII with Arianespace, giving us confidence in Arianespace's ability to execute on future launches," said Anders Johnson, president of EchoStar Satellite Services.

"The Ariane 5 vehicle has been a reliable, flight-proven launch system. We look forward to relying on Ariane 5 to deliver on-time success in the execution of our near term expansion programs.""EchoStar is a global leader in satellite services, and our innovations have contributed to the success of the direct-to-home services worldwide. With this new Arianespace contract, we remain at the forefront of state-of-the-art DTH services while significantly expanding transponder capacity," said Michael Dugan, president and CEO for EchoStar.

EchoStar's relationship with Arianespace dates back to 1996, when the companies successfully launched EchoStar II."EchoStar's renewed confidence in Arianespace is extremely gratifying to us. This launch contract allows us to play a role in the expansion of EchoStar's broadcast and data revolution. Our dedication to quality gives customers like EchoStar a solid foundation for innovation and growth," said Jean-Yves Le Gall, chairman and CEO of Arianespace.

In 2012, Arianespace performed eight successful launches at the CSG: six Ariane 5, one Soyuz and one Vega. Starsem, its European-Russian subsidiary, has also carried out a launch of Soyuz from the Baikonur cosmodrome. The company has a Soyuz launch plus another Ariane 5 launch at CSG before the end of the year.

Based on its launch performance and backlog of orders, Arianespace has been the world's leading launch company for a number of years, capturing more than 50% of the commercial satellite launch market, equal to more than three years of business.

For further information visit: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/EchoStar_and_Arianespace_sign_new_satellite_launch_services_contract_999.html

China successfully launches remote sensing satellite

The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center confirmed that China successfully launched the Yaogan XVI remote-sensing satellite into space at 12:06 a.m. Sunday. The satellite, launched from the center in northwest China's Gansu Province, was boosted by a Long March-4C carrier rocket and sent into a predetermined orbit.

The Yaogan XVI remote-sensing satellite was developed by an affiliate research institute of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. It has been designed for a variety of uses, including technological experimentation, land resource surveying, agricultural yield estimation and disaster prevention and reduction.

The launch marked the 172th of the Long March series carrier rockets.

For further information visit: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/China_successfully_launches_remote_sensing_satellite_999.html

Lockheed Martin Completes Critical Environmental Test on GPS III Pathfinder

Lockheed Martin engineers work on the full-sized prototype of the GPS III satellite in the company's GPS Processing Facility (GPF) near Denver. For a larger version of this image please go here. 

The Lockheed Martin team developing the U.S. Air Force's next generation Global Positioning System III satellites has completed thermal vacuum testing for the Navigation Payload Element (NPE) of the GPS III Non-Flight Satellite Testbed (GNST).The milestone is one of several environmental tests verifying the navigation payload's quality of workmanship and increased performance compared to the current generation of satellites.

The GPS III program will affordably replace aging GPS satellites, while improving capability to meet the evolving demands of military, commercial and civilian users.GPS III satellites will deliver better accuracy and improved anti-jamming power while enhancing the spacecraft's design life and adding a new civil signal designed to be interoperable with international global navigation satellite systems.

"GPS III satellites have the most advanced navigation payloads ever manufactured. This milestone is a key indicator that we have a solid design and are on track to provide unprecedented position, navigation, and timing capability for GPS users worldwide," said Lt Col Todd Caldwell, the U.S. Air Force's GPS III program manager.

During thermal vacuum testing, the navigation payload's performance was proven in a vacuum environment at the extreme hot and cold temperatures it will experience on orbit to ensure it will operate as planned once in space. Following the test, the NPE will now be integrated with the GNST for final satellite level testing.

The GNST is a full-sized prototype of a GPS III satellite used to identify and solve development issues prior to integration and test of the first space vehicle. The approach significantly reduces risk, improves production predictability, increases mission assurance and lowers overall program costs.

Following integration and test at Lockheed Martin's GPS Processing Facility (GPF) near Denver, the GNST will be shipped to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., for risk reduction activities at the launch site."The completion of thermal vacuum testing on our first navigation payload is a critical milestone for our program that demonstrates we are on a solid path to meet our commitments," said Keoki Jackson, vice president of Lockheed Martin's Navigation Systems mission area.

"The Air Force's early investment in our GPS III pathfinder is now paying off and will enable highly efficient and affordable satellite production going forward."Lockheed Martin is on contract to deliver the first four GPS III satellites for launch. The Air Force plans to purchase up to 32 GPS III satellites.

The GPS III team is led by the Global Positioning Systems Directorate at the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. Lockheed Martin is the GPS III prime contractor with teammates ITT Exelis, General Dynamics, Infinity Systems Engineering, Honeywell, ATK and other subcontractors. Air Force Space Command's 2nd Space Operations Squadron (2SOPS), based at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo., manages and operates the GPS constellation for both civil and military users.

For further information visit: http://www.gpsdaily.com/reports/Lockheed_Martin_Completes_Critical_Environmental_Test_on_GPS_III_Pathfinder_999.html