The Latest Update on the 'Bulls-Eye Planet'...

NASA / JPL

Mining Old Data From NASA’s Voyager 2 Solves Several Uranus Mysteries (News Release)

NASA’s Voyager 2 flyby of Uranus decades ago shaped scientists’ understanding of the planet but also introduced unexplained oddities. A recent data dive has offered answers.

When NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Uranus in 1986, it provided scientists’ first — and, so far, only — close glimpse of this strange, sideways-rotating outer planet. Alongside the discovery of new moons and rings, baffling new mysteries confronted scientists. The energized particles around the planet defied their understanding of how magnetic fields work to trap particle radiation, and Uranus earned a reputation as an outlier in our Solar System.

Now, new research analyzing the data collected during that flyby 38 years ago has found that the source of that particular mystery is a cosmic coincidence: It turns out that in the days just before Voyager 2’s flyby, the planet had been affected by an unusual kind of space weather that squashed the planet’s magnetic field, dramatically compressing Uranus’ magnetosphere.

“If Voyager 2 had arrived just a few days earlier, it would have observed a completely different magnetosphere at Uranus,” said Jamie Jasinski of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and lead author of the new work published in Nature Astronomy. “The spacecraft saw Uranus in conditions that only occur about 4% of the time.”

Magnetospheres serve as protective bubbles around planets (including Earth) with magnetic cores and magnetic fields, shielding them from jets of ionized gas — or plasma — that stream out from the Sun in the solar wind. Learning more about how magnetospheres work is important for understanding our own planet, as well as those in seldom-visited corners of our Solar System and beyond.

That’s why scientists were eager to study Uranus’ magnetosphere, and what they saw in the Voyager 2 data in 1986 flummoxed them. Inside the planet’s magnetosphere were electron radiation belts with an intensity second only to Jupiter’s notoriously brutal radiation belts. But there was apparently no source of energized particles to feed those active belts; in fact, the rest of Uranus’ magnetosphere was almost devoid of plasma.

The missing plasma also puzzled scientists because they knew that the five major Uranian moons in the magnetic bubble should have produced water ions, as icy moons around other outer planets do. They concluded that the moons must be inert with no ongoing activity.

Solving the Mystery

So why was no plasma observed, and what was happening to beef up the radiation belts? The new data analysis points to the solar wind. When plasma from the Sun pounded and compressed the magnetosphere, it likely drove plasma out of the system.

The solar wind event would have also briefly intensified the dynamics of the magnetosphere, which would have fed the belts by injecting electrons into them.

The findings could be good news for those five major moons of Uranus: Some of them might be geologically active after all. With an explanation for the temporarily missing plasma, researchers say it’s plausible that the moons may have actually been spewing ions into the surrounding bubble all along.

Planetary scientists are focusing on bolstering their knowledge about the mysterious Uranus system, which the National Academies’ 2023 Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey prioritized as a target for a future NASA mission.

JPL’s Linda Spilker was among the Voyager 2 mission scientists glued to the images and other data that flowed in during the Uranus flyby in 1986. She remembers the anticipation and excitement of the event, which changed how scientists thought about the Uranian system.

“The flyby was packed with surprises, and we were searching for an explanation of its unusual behavior. The magnetosphere Voyager 2 measured was only a snapshot in time,” said Spilker, who has returned to the iconic mission to lead its science team as project scientist. “This new work explains some of the apparent contradictions, and it will change our view of Uranus once again.”

Voyager 2, now in interstellar space, is almost 13 billion miles (21 billion kilometers) from Earth.

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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NASA / JPL - Caltech

The Latest Update on SOLAR PROBE PLUS...

NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Steve Gribben

NASA’s Sun-Bound Parker Solar Probe Swings Through Final Venus Flyby (News Release)

Gravity-Assist Maneuver Sets Up Record Close Approach to Our Star

On November 6, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed its seventh and final Venus gravity-assist maneuver, passing within 240 miles (about 387 kilometers) of Venus’ surface. The flyby adjusted Parker’s trajectory into the final orbital configuration of its primary mission, bringing the spacecraft to within an unprecedented 3.8 million miles of the solar surface on December 24, 2024.

Monitoring the maneuver through NASA’s Deep Space Network, the mission operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland — where Parker Solar Probe was designed and built — confirmed that Parker was operating normally as it reached closest approach to Venus at 1:43 p.m. EST, flew precisely through its planned “aim point” and then began its swing in toward the Sun.

“We’re reaching the crescendo of Parker’s incredible voyage through the inner Solar System,” said Yanping Guo, Parker Solar Probe mission design and navigation manager in APL’s Space Exploration Sector. “More than six years after launch, this incredible spacecraft continues to exceed all expectations, and we can’t wait to see what Parker uncovers on its closest approaches to the Sun.”

Parker is now on course to reach the final objective of a historic mission conceived over 65 years ago: flying within 3.8 million miles (around 6.1 million kilometers) of the surface of the Sun. No human-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will be returning data from uncharted territory. As Parker passes through the Sun’s atmosphere, it will cut through plumes of plasma still connected to the Sun.

It will be close enough to pass inside a solar eruption, like a surfer diving under a crashing ocean wave.

“This is the vision generations of scientists have dreamed of realizing since 1958,” said Nour Rawafi, the Parker Solar Probe project scientist at APL.

During its Christmas Eve closest approach, or perihelion, mission control will be out of contact with the spacecraft, although Parker will transmit beacon tones on December 21 and December 27 to confirm its health. The spacecraft will remain in this orbit for the remainder of its primary mission, completing two more perihelia at about the same distance and speed — a record 430,000 miles (692,018 kilometers) per hour — in March and June 2025. After that, the team will decide whether to keep the spacecraft in that orbit or reposition it.

New Science

Early mission plans didn’t include any planetary science at Venus. But that changed shortly after launch in 2018, and Parker’s better-than-expected performance allowed the team to adjust its observational programs.

One reason why Parker’s Venus flybys have become boons for new science is a chance discovery from the spacecraft’s Wide-Field Imager for Parker Solar Probe, called WISPR. The instrument peers out from Parker and away from the Sun to see fine details in the solar wind. But on July 11, 2020, during Parker’s third Venus flyby, scientists turned WISPR toward Venus in hopes of tracking changes in the planet’s thick cloud cover. The images revealed a surprise: WISPR, which captures visible and near infrared light, seemed to see the Venusian surface.

“The WISPR cameras can see through the clouds to the surface of Venus, which glows in the near-infrared because it’s so hot,” said APL planetary scientist Noam Izenberg.

Venus, sizzling at approximately 869° Fahrenheit (about 465° Celsius), was radiating through the clouds.

The WISPR images from the 2020 flyby, as well as the next flyby in 2021, revealed Venus’ surface in a new light. But they also raised puzzling questions, and scientists devised the final flyby to help answer them.

The Venus images correlate well with data from the Magellan spacecraft, showing dark and light patterns that line up with surface regions that Magellan captured when it mapped Venus’ surface using radar from 1990 to 1994. Yet some parts of the WISPR images appear brighter than expected, hinting at extra information captured by WISPR.

Is WISPR picking up on chemical differences on the surface, where the ground is made of different material? Perhaps it’s seeing variations in age, where more recent lava flows added a fresh coat to the Venusian surface.

“Because it flies over a number of similar and different landforms compared to the previous Venus flybys, the November 6 flyby will give us more context to evaluate whether WISPR can help us distinguish physical or even chemical properties of Venus’ surface,” Izenberg said.

Rawafi said that imaging was just part of the flyby’s science agenda. Shaped under Rawafi’s direction for more than a year, the comprehensive plan also included a look at the different components of Venus’ exosphere and their interactions with the Sun. The Parker team expects to begin receiving the first bits of that data later this month, he added, with plans to present some of its findings at the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting the week of December 9 to 13.

“The science data we’ve gathered over these seven Venus flybys is a real tribute to Parker’s versatility, and have enabled new avenues for research on Venus,” Rawafi said. “The seventh Venus flyby, however, was especially unique, in that spacecraft flew through the planet’s nightside and plunged deep into its atmosphere. We’re anticipating some exciting surprises when the data comes down.”

Source: Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory

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NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Naval Research Laboratory / Guillermo Stenborg and Brendan Gallagher

America's Newest X-Plane Moves a Step Closer to Becoming Airborne Early Next Year...

NASA / Carla Thomas

X-59 Fires Up its Engine for First Time on its Way to Takeoff (News Release - November 6)

NASA’s QueSST mission marked a major milestone with the start of tests on the engine that will power the quiet supersonic X-59 experimental aircraft.

These engine-run tests, which began on October 30, allow the X-59 team to verify that the aircraft’s systems are working together while powered by its own engine. In previous tests, the X-59 used external sources for power. The engine-run tests set the stage for the next phase of the experimental aircraft’s progress towards flight.

The X-59 team is conducting the engine-run tests in phases. In this first phase, the engine rotated at a relatively low speed without ignition to check for leaks and ensure all systems are communicating properly. The team then fueled the aircraft and began testing the engine at low power, with the goal of verifying that it and other aircraft systems operate without anomalies or leaks while on engine power.

“The first phase of the engine tests was really a warmup to make sure that everything looked good prior to running the engine,” said Jay Brandon, NASA’s X-59 chief engineer. “Then we moved to the actual first engine start. That took the engine out of the preservation mode that it had been in since installation on the aircraft. It was the first check to see that it was operating properly and that all the systems it impacted – hydraulics, electrical system, environmental control systems, etc. – seemed to be working.”

The X-59 will generate a quieter thump rather than a loud boom while flying faster than the speed of sound. The aircraft is the centerpiece of NASA’s QueSST mission, which will gather data on how people perceive these thumps, providing regulators with information that could help lift current bans on commercial supersonic flight over land.

The engine, a modified F414-GE-100, packs 22,000 pounds of thrust, which will enable the X-59 to achieve the desired cruising speed of Mach 1.4 (925 miles per hour) at an altitude of approximately 55,000 feet. It sits in a nontraditional spot – atop the aircraft — to aid in making the X-59 quieter.

Engine runs are part of a series of integrated ground tests needed to ensure safe flight and successful achievement of mission goals. Because of the challenges involved with reaching this critical phase of testing, the X-59’s first flight is now expected in early 2025. The team will continue progressing through critical ground tests and address any technical issues discovered with this one-of-a-kind, experimental aircraft.

The X-59 team will have a more specific first flight date as these tests are successfully completed.

The testing is taking place at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California. During later phases, the team will test the aircraft at high power with rapid throttle changes, followed by simulating the conditions of an actual flight.

“The success of these runs will be the start of the culmination of the last eight years of my career,” said Paul Dees, NASA’s deputy propulsion lead for the X-59. “This isn’t the end of the excitement but a small steppingstone to the beginning. It’s like the first note of a symphony, where years of teamwork behind the scenes are now being put to the test to prove our efforts have been effective, and the notes will continue to play a harmonious song to flight.”

After the engine runs, the X-59 team will move to aluminum bird testing, where data will be fed to the aircraft under both normal and failure conditions. The team will then proceed with a series of taxi tests, where the aircraft will be put in motion on the ground. These tests will be followed by final preparations for first flight.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / Carla Thomas

ELECTION 2024: A Major Setback for the American Experiment...

So about three hours ago, Vice President Kamala Harris gave her concession speech at Howard University in Washington, D.C.—after losing to Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election yesterday. As of right now, the electoral count stands at 295-226 (see below), in favor of the convicted felon and adjudicated rapist. 270 points were needed to clinch the victory.

So where do we go from here? Who is to blame for this stunning defeat?

- President Joe Biden for bombing his CNN debate with Trump last June?
- Biden for refusing to end his re-election bid before this year's primaries...in which case Harris or any other Democratic candidate would've had more time presenting their case for running as president to the American people?
- Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for urging Biden to drop out of the race following the June debate?

Or...

- The majority of Americans who voted against their own interests because they couldn't accept having a woman, a non-white woman at that, in the Oval Office?

Lots of soul-searching to do for the Democrats in regards to yesterday's heartbreaking loss. But there will be even more soul-searching to do, by the American public itself, after Trump is inaugurated next January.

Assuming that the fear over PROJECT 2025 is justified (most signs indicate that it is), all of the voters who think they won today will eventually realize that they didn't. It's a matter of when.

My SoCal Sports Wall of Fame, Updated!

Even though the Los Angeles Times was one day late in publishing coverage for Game 5 of the World Series in its newspaper, that didn't stop me from adhering to a tradition started in mid-2000 (when Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant won their first NBA title with the Lakers) and displaying today's Dodgers-celebrating printed edition on my wall at home!

Yesterday, I woke up at 5:30 in the morning to buy the L.A. Times paper...with all but one store that I drove to (a donut shop in West Covina, versus 7-Elevens for the other visits I made around the cities of Diamond Bar and Pomona here in Los Angeles County) running out of Thursday's edition. To make things hilarious for those jerks who apparently bought multiple copies of the paper so that there wouldn't be any left for other customers to purchase yesterday, the L.A. Times had Game 5 coverage only on its website. Everyone had to wait till this morning to buy the commemorative paper celebrating Los Angeles' second Major League Baseball championship in five years.

I woke up at 5 AM today to ensure that would be a lot more papers left at that donut shop before I made my purchase. There were six in stock, and I bought two. (There were two papers remaining on the shelf yesterday.)

So while the Dodgers' 2024 championship coverage now graces my bedroom wall instead of the 2020 title, one wonders when I'll replace the newspapers celebrating the Lakers' 2020 NBA Finals victory and the Rams' 2022 Super Bowl win at home. The way that the Lakers and Rams are currently playing (the Lakers lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers—who are currently undefeated—two days ago, while the Rams are 3-4 in the NFC West right now), probably not anytime soon!

Go Dodger Blue.

L.A. Is the King of the Baseball World Once Again!

Major League Baseball

Happy Halloween, everyone! Last night, the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees, 7-6, in Game 5 of the World Series...winning their second championship in five years!

The latest Major League Baseball title is the 8th in Dodgers franchise history, and comes after Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Walker Buehler, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and company emerged victorious from a series that was the 12th matchup with the Yankees since 1941. Before this year's Fall Classic, Los Angeles and New York last clashed in 1981—with the late and great Fernando Valenzuela helping the Dodgers to win the championship that October.

As for the World Series' Most Valuable Player trophy, Freddie Freeman won the award...after he immediately became a legend hitting that walk-off grand slam to seal a Game 1 victory against the Yanks on October 25th.

It's so awesome for the City of Angels to become the City of Champions once more! Hopefully, Shohei will come close to winning the additional nine titles that he wanted after clinching his first with the Dodgers last night; Mookie Betts will tie Yankees legend Derek Jeter with two more World Series rings (Betts now has three—two with the Dodgers and one with the Boston Red Sox), and Yankees left fielder and power hitter Juan Soto (who's now a free agent) will sign with Los Angeles in the offseason.

Okay, I'm not holding my breath on that last one with Soto. Go Dodger Blue!


Major League Baseball


Major League Baseball


Major League Baseball

The Latest Update on America's Next Great Observatory...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

NASA Successfully Integrates Coronagraph for Roman Space Telescope (News Release - October 28)

The instrument will demonstrate advanced hardware for studying Earth-size planets with the right conditions for life.

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully completed integration of the Roman Coronagraph Instrument onto Roman’s Instrument Carrier, a piece of infrastructure that will hold the mission’s instruments, which will be integrated onto the larger spacecraft at a later date. The Roman Coronagraph is a technology demonstration that scientists will use to take an important step in the search for habitable worlds and, eventually, life beyond Earth.

This integration took place at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where the space telescope is located and in development. This milestone follows the coronagraph’s arrival at the center earlier this year from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, where the instrument was developed, built and tested.

The Roman Coronagraph Instrument is a technology demonstration that will launch aboard the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, NASA’s next flagship astrophysics mission. Roman will have a field of view at least 100 times larger than the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope and explore scientific mysteries surrounding dark energy, exoplanets and infrared astrophysics. Roman is expected to launch no later than May of 2027.

The mission’s coronagraph is designed to make direct observations of exoplanets, or planets outside of our Solar System, by using a complex suite of masks and active mirrors to obscure the glare of the planets’ host stars, making the planets visible. Being a technology demonstration means that the coronagraph’s goal is to test this technology in space and showcase its capabilities. The Roman Coronagraph is poised to act as a technological stepping stone, enabling future technologies on missions like NASA’s proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory, which would be the first telescope designed specifically to search for signs of life on exoplanets.

“In order to get from where we are to where we want to be, we need the Roman Coronagraph to demonstrate this technology,” said Rob Zellem, Roman Space Telescope deputy project scientist for communications at NASA Goddard. “We’ll be applying those lessons learned to the next generation of NASA flagship missions that will be explicitly designed to look for Earth-like planets.”

A Major Mission Milestone

The coronagraph was successfully integrated into Roman’s Instrument Carrier, a large grid-like structure that sits between the space telescope’s primary mirror and spacecraft bus, which will deliver the telescope to orbit and enable the telescope’s functionality upon arrival in space. Assembly of the mission’s spacecraft bus was completed in September.

The Instrument Carrier will hold both the coronagraph and Roman’s Wide Field Instrument, the mission’s primary science instrument, which is set to be integrated later this year along with the Roman telescope itself. “You can think of [the Instrument Carrier] as the skeleton of the observatory, what everything interfaces to,” said Brandon Creager, lead mechanical engineer for the Roman Coronagraph at JPL.

The integration process began months ago with mission teams from across NASA coming together to plan the maneuver. Additionally, after its arrival at NASA Goddard, mission teams ran tests to prepare the coronagraph to be joined to the spacecraft bus.

During the integration itself, the coronagraph, which is roughly the size and shape of a baby grand piano (measuring about 5.5 feet, or 1.7 meters across), was mounted onto the Instrument Carrier using what’s called the Horizontal Integration Tool.

First, a specialized adapter developed at JPL was attached to the instrument, and then the Horizontal Integration Tool was attached to the adapter. The tool acts as a moveable counterweight, so the instrument was suspended from the tool as it was carefully moved into its final position in the Instrument Carrier. Then, the attached Horizontal Integration Tool and adapter were removed from the coronagraph.

The Horizontal Integration Tool has previously been used for integrations on NASA’s Hubble and James Webb Space Telescope.

As part of the integration process, engineers also ensured that blanketing layers were in place to insulate the coronagraph within its place in the Instrument Carrier. The coronagraph is designed to operate at room temperature, so insulation is critical to keep the instrument at the right temperature in the cold vacuum of space. This insulation will also provide an additional boundary to block stray light that could otherwise obscure observations.

Following this successful integration, engineers will perform different checks and tests to ensure that everything is connected properly and correctly aligned before moving forward to integrate the Wide Field Instrument and the telescope itself. Successful alignment of the Roman Coronagraph’s optics is critical to the instrument’s success in orbit.

This latest mission milestone is the culmination of an enduring collaboration between a number of Roman partners, but especially between NASA Goddard and JPL.

“It’s really rewarding to watch these teams come together and build up the Roman observatory. That’s the result of a lot of teams, long hours, hard work, sweat and tears,” said Liz Daly, the integrated payload assembly integration and test lead for Roman at Goddard.

“Support and trust were shared across both teams... We were all just one team,” said Gasia Bedrosian, the integration and test lead for the Roman Coronagraph at JPL. Following the integration, “we celebrated our success together,” she added.

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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NASA / Sydney Rohde

A Gorgeous View from Jezero Crater on Mars...

NASA / JPL - Caltech / ASU / MSSS

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Looks Back While Climbing Slippery Slope (News Release)

On its way up the side of Jezero Crater, the agency’s latest Red Planet off-roader peers all the way back to its landing site and scopes the path ahead.

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is negotiating a steeply sloping route up Jezero Crater’s western wall with the aim of cresting the rim in early December. During the climb, the rover snapped not only a sweeping view of Jezero Crater’s interior, but also imagery of the tracks that it left after some wheel slippage along the way.

Stitched together from 44 frames acquired on September 27, the 1,282nd Martian day of Perseverance’s mission, the image mosaic features many landmarks and Martian firsts that have made the rover’s 3½-year exploration of Jezero so memorable, including the rover’s landing site, the spot where it first found sedimentary rocks, the location of the first sample depot on another planet, and the final airfield for NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. The rover captured the view near a location that the team calls “Faraway Rock,” at about the halfway point in its climb up the crater wall.

“The image not only shows our past and present, but also shows the biggest challenge to getting where we want to be in the future,” said Perseverance’s deputy project manager, Rick Welch of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “If you look at the right side of the mosaic, you begin to get an idea what we’re dealing with. Mars didn’t want to make it easy for anyone to get to the top of this ridge.”

Visible on the right side of the mosaic is a slope of about 20 degrees. While Perseverance has climbed 20-degree inclines before (both NASA’s Curiosity and Opportunity rovers had crested hills at least 10 degrees steeper), this is the first time it’s traveled that steep a grade on such a slippery surface.

Soft, Fluffy

During much of the climb, the rover has been driving over loosely-packed dust and sand with a thin, brittle crust. On several days, Perseverance covered only about 50% of the distance that it would have on a less slippery surface, and on one occasion, it covered just 20% of the planned route.

“Mars rovers have driven over steeper terrain, and they’ve driven over more slippery terrain, but this is the first time one had to handle both — and on this scale,” said JPL’s Camden Miller, who was a rover planner, or “driver,” for Curiosity and now serves the same role on the Perseverance mission. “For every two steps forward Perseverance takes, we were taking at least one step back. The rover planners saw this was trending toward a long, hard slog, so we got together to think up some options.”

On October 3, they sent commands for Perseverance to test strategies to reduce slippage. First, they had it drive backward up the slope (testing on Earth has shown that under certain conditions the rover’s “rocker-bogie” suspension system maintains better traction during backward driving). Then they tried cross-slope driving (switchbacking) and driving closer to the northern edge of “Summerland Trail,” the name that the mission has given to the rover’s route up the crater rim.

Data from those efforts showed that while all three approaches enhanced traction, sticking close to the slope’s northern edge proved the most beneficial. The rover planners believe the presence of larger rocks closer to the surface made the difference.

“That’s the plan right now, but we may have to change things up the road,” said Miller. “No Mars rover mission has tried to climb up a mountain this big this fast. The science team wants to get to the top of the crater rim as soon as possible because of the scientific opportunities up there. It’s up to us rover planners to figure out a way to get them there.”

Tube Status

In a few weeks, Perseverance is expected to crest the crater rim at a location that the science team calls “Lookout Hill.” From there, it will drive about another quarter-mile (450 meters) to “Witch Hazel Hill.” Orbital data shows that Witch Hazel Hill contains light-toned, layered bedrock.

The team is looking forward to comparing this new site to “Bright Angel,” the area where Perseverance recently discovered and sampled the “Cheyava Falls” rock.

The rover landed on Mars carrying 43 tubes for collecting samples from the Martian surface. So far, Perseverance has sealed and cached 24 samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and dust), plus one atmospheric sample and three witness tubes. Early in the mission’s development, NASA set the requirement for the rover to be capable of caching at least 31 samples of rock, regolith and witness tubes over the course of Perseverance’s mission at Jezero.

The project added 12 tubes, bringing the total to 43. The extras were included in anticipation of the challenging conditions found at Mars that could result in some tubes not functioning as designed.

NASA decided to retire two of the spare empty tubes because accessing them would pose a risk to the rover’s small internal robotic sample-handling arm needed for the task: A wire harness connected to the arm could catch on a fastener on the rover’s frame when reaching for the two empty sample tubes.

With those spares now retired, Perseverance currently has 11 empty tubes for sampling rock and two empty witness tubes.

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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Photos of the Day: Capturing Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS Images for the Third and Final Time...

Richard T. Par

Yesterday, I drove back to Diamond Bar's Summitridge Park in California to take one final group of photos of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS).

I originally went to Summitridge Park for a third attempt last Friday, October 18, but showed up a bit later than I should have (around 7:30 PM, PDT) since I ate dinner at home beforehand. The marine layer coming in from the Pacific Ocean (43 miles away) was already obscuring much of the sky across Los Angeles County from my vantage point at Summitridge...making it more difficult for me to spot the increasingly-faint comet.

I arrived at the park a few minutes before 7 PM, PDT last night (sunset was at 6:11 PM, PDT), and as shown with the images that I've included with this post, Tsuchinshan–ATLAS is becoming less and less visible as it moves away from Earth. The comet, once it disappears from view at the end of this month, won't return to our inner Solar System for another 80,000 years.

Here are the settings on my Nikon D3300 DSLR camera for yesterday's cosmic photoshoot:

Lens: 70-300mm Nikon telephoto lens
ISO: 400 to 800
F-stop: f/5.6
Shutter speed: 2.5 seconds
Live View mode on my LCD screen used instead of the viewfinder

Hope you guys were able to spot Tsuchinshan–ATLAS over the past few weeks as well! Happy Sunday.


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par

Photos of the Day: Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS Pictures That I Took Last Night...

Richard T. Par

As promised in my Blog entry last Saturday, I went back to Diamond Bar's Summitridge Park in California yesterday to take more photos of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS)!

Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS was a bit higher in the sky on October 14, and was more visible than on October 12 since the celestial body was no longer caught in the glare of the Sun as it set below the horizon.

Here are the settings on my Nikon D3300 DSLR camera for last night's cosmic photoshoot:

Lens: 70-300mm Nikon telephoto lens
ISO: 400 to 800
F-stop: f/4.5
Shutter speed: 4 seconds
Live View mode on my LCD screen used instead of the viewfinder

Will I head back out one last time to see this comet before it disappears from our skies for the next 80,000 years? We'll see.

I already took care of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) with my two trips to Summitridge Park. Happy Tuesday!


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par

America's Next Jupiter-bound Orbiter Has Finally Departed from Earth!

SpaceX

Liftoff! NASA’s Europa Clipper Sails Toward Ocean Moon of Jupiter (Press Release)

NASA’s Europa Clipper has embarked on its long voyage to Jupiter, where it will investigate Europa, a moon with an enormous subsurface ocean that may have conditions to support life. The spacecraft launched at 12:06 p.m. EDT on Monday aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The largest spacecraft that NASA has ever built for a mission headed to another planet, Europa Clipper is also the first NASA mission dedicated to studying an ocean world beyond Earth. The spacecraft will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) on a trajectory that will leverage the power of gravity assists, first to Mars in four months and then back to Earth for another gravity assist flyby in 2026. After it begins orbiting Jupiter in April 2030, the spacecraft will fly past Europa 49 times.

“Congratulations to our Europa Clipper team for beginning the first journey to an ocean world beyond Earth,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “NASA leads the world in exploration and discovery, and the Europa Clipper mission is no different. By exploring the unknown, Europa Clipper will help us better understand whether there is the potential for life not just within our Solar System, but among the billions of moons and planets beyond our Sun.”

Approximately five minutes after liftoff, the rocket’s second stage fired up and the payload fairing, or the rocket’s nose cone, opened to reveal Europa Clipper. About an hour after launch, the spacecraft separated from the rocket. Ground controllers received a signal soon after, and two-way communication was established at 1:13 p.m. with NASA’s Deep Space Network facility in Canberra, Australia.

Mission teams celebrated as initial telemetry reports showed that Europa Clipper is in good health and operating as expected.

“We could not be more excited for the incredible and unprecedented science NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will deliver in the generations to come,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Everything in NASA science is interconnected, and Europa Clipper’s scientific discoveries will build upon the legacy that our other missions exploring Jupiter — including Juno, Galileo and Voyager — created in our search for habitable worlds beyond our home planet.”

The main goal of the mission is to determine whether Europa has conditions that could support life. Europa is about the size of our own Moon, but its interior is different. Information from NASA’s Galileo mission in the 1990s showed strong evidence that under Europa’s ice lies an enormous, salty ocean with more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined.

Scientists have also found evidence that Europa may host organic compounds and energy sources under its surface. If the mission determines that Europa is habitable, it may mean there are more habitable worlds in our Solar System and beyond than imagined.

“We’re ecstatic to send Europa Clipper on its way to explore a potentially habitable ocean world, thanks to our colleagues and partners who’ve worked so hard to get us to this day,” said Laurie Leshin, director, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Europa Clipper will undoubtedly deliver mind-blowing science. While always bittersweet to send something we’ve labored over for years off on its long journey, we know this remarkable team and spacecraft will expand our knowledge of our Solar System and inspire future exploration.”

In 2031, the spacecraft will begin conducting its science-dedicated flybys of Europa. Coming as close as 16 miles (25 kilometers) to the surface, Europa Clipper is equipped with nine science instruments and a gravity experiment, including an ice-penetrating radar, cameras and a thermal instrument to look for areas of warmer ice and any recent eruptions of water. As the most sophisticated suite of science instruments that NASA has ever sent to Jupiter, they will work in concert to learn more about the moon’s icy shell, thin atmosphere and deep interior.

To power those instruments in the faint sunlight that reaches Jupiter, Europa Clipper also carries the largest solar arrays NASA has ever used for an interplanetary mission. With arrays extended, the spacecraft spans 100 feet (30.5 meters) from end to end. With propellant loaded, it weighs about 13,000 pounds (5,900 kilograms).

In all, more than 4,000 people have contributed to the Europa Clipper mission since it was formally approved in 2015.

“As Europa Clipper embarks on its journey, I’ll be thinking about the countless hours of dedication, innovation and teamwork that made this moment possible,” said Jordan Evans, project manager at NASA JPL. “This launch isn’t just the next chapter in our exploration of the Solar System; it’s a leap toward uncovering the mysteries of another ocean world, driven by our shared curiosity and continued search to answer the question, ‘are we alone?’”

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / JPL - Caltech


NASA / JPL - Caltech


SpaceX

Photos of the Day: My Snapshots of Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS!

Richard T. Par

A few hours ago, I drove down to Summitridge Park in the city of Diamond Bar to take photos of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS)...which will be visible in the evening sky for the next two weeks or so. Once it heads back out to the Oort Cloud two light-years away, comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS won't return to our inner Solar System for another 80,000 years!

I used my Google Pixel 5 and Nikon D3300 DSLR camera to capture these snapshots. Here are the settings that I employed on my DSLR:

Lens: 70-300mm Nikon telephoto lens
ISO: 400 to 1600
F-stop: f/5.6
Shutter speed: 2.5 seconds
Live View mode on my LCD screen used instead of the viewfinder

I plan on heading back out to capture more images of C/2023 A3 as it gets higher up in the sky over the coming days. This is my second comet in over four years (after comet NEOWISE in July of 2020) that I was fortunate enough to take photos of from Los Angeles County, CA!

Hope you guys are having a nice weekend.


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par

The Latest Update on the Orbital Test Vehicle...

Boeing

Boeing-built X-37B Begins Advanced Space Maneuvering (News Release - October 10)

- 10 months into its 7th mission, the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-7) continues to set the pace of technology demonstrations in space.

- Upcoming aerobraking will expand the United States Space Force’s knowledge of maneuvering between orbits with minimal fuel usage.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla — The Boeing [NYSE: BA]-built X-37B will soon perform a series of advanced aerobraking maneuvers, taking the dynamic spaceplane from a Highly-Elliptical Orbit (HEO), where it’s been operating since December 2023, and lowering its altitude using minimal fuel.

This will be the first time that Boeing, the United States Space Force (USSF) and the X-37B attempt to accomplish this novel demonstration.

“Space is a vast and unforgiving environment where testing technologies is critical to the success of future endeavors,” said Michelle Parker, vice president of Boeing’s Space Mission Systems. “There is no other space platform as capable, flexible and maneuverable as the X-37B, and its next demonstration will be another proof point that this test vehicle sets the pace of innovation.”

During aerobraking, the X-37B will use the drag of Earth’s atmosphere to slow it down, reducing the vehicle’s energy and changing the orbit while expending minimal fuel. The Service Module disposal will be conducted in accordance with established standards for space debris mitigation, and the X-37B’s orbit change will occur in a safe and responsible manner. Once aerobraking is complete, the X-37B will resume its test and experimentation objectives.

“This first-of-a kind maneuver from the X-37B is an incredibly important milestone for the United States Space Force as we seek to expand our aptitude and ability to perform in this challenging domain,” said Gen. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations.

The program will leverage six successful missions of safely operating the X-37B around Earth during this next demonstration. Boeing brings decades of lessons learned from operating other spacecraft in a variety of orbits, from the Apollo missions, the Space Shuttle Program, and hundreds of government and commercial satellites.

Source: Boeing

America's Next Jupiter-bound Orbiter Will Get a New Launch Date After Florida Weathers the Latest Tropical Cyclone...

NASA / Ben Smegelsky

NASA Begins Post-Hurricane Milton Assessments at Kennedy (News Release)

NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida remains closed as Hurricane Milton moves off the coast.

The safety of everyone impacted by the storm remains our top priority as the agency begins the assessment and recovery process from the hurricane.

Once the winds subsided to a safe level, the center’s Ride Out Team and engineering teams began initial checkouts to ensure that bridges are safe and useable. Later, a larger assessment team will thoroughly check the entire center.

The agency’s Europa Clipper launch team will schedule an official launch date when teams from NASA and SpaceX are able to perform their assessments, and confirm that it’s safe to launch. Teams are working to protect launch opportunities no earlier than Sunday, October 13. Clipper has launch opportunities through Wednesday, November 6.

NASA will provide more information on Clipper launch opportunities as it becomes available.

Source: NASA.Gov

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Kennedy's Ride Out Team is conducting an initial assessment of the center. The majority of the impacts observed at this time are minor damage to doors, traffic lights, awnings, and small trailers.

The Damage Assessment and Recovery Team, or DART, will conduct a comprehensive… pic.twitter.com/jazgk1JbdH

— NASA's Kennedy Space Center (@NASAKennedy) October 10, 2024

The Latest Update on the Mars Sample Return Campaign...

Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab Awarded NASA Study Contract to Explore Bringing Rock Samples from Mars to Earth for the First Time (Press Release - October 7)

The study proposes using Rocket Lab’s vertically-integrated technologies to retrieve samples from the Red Planet for the first time in history as part of NASA’s Mars Sample Return Program.

Long Beach, California. Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the Company”), a global leader in launch services and space systems, today announced that the Company has been selected by NASA to complete a study for retrieving rock samples from the Martian surface and bringing them to Earth for the first time. The mission would fulfill some of the highest priority Solar System exploration goals for the science community – to revolutionize humanity’s understanding of Mars, potentially answer whether life ever existed on the Martian surface, and help prepare for the first human explorers to the Red Planet.

NASA’s Rapid Mission Design Studies for Mars Sample Return solicits industry proposals to carry out rapid studies of mission designs and mission elements capable of delivering samples collected by the Mars Perseverance rover from the surface of Mars to Earth. The results of this study will inform a potential update to NASA’s Mars Sample Return Program and may result in future procurements with industry. Rocket Lab’s study will explore a simplified, end-to-end mission concept that would be delivered for a fraction of the current projected program cost and completed several years earlier than the current expected sample return date in 2040.

“Retrieving samples from Mars is one of the most ambitious and scientifically important endeavors humanity has ever embarked upon. We’ve developed an innovative mission concept to make it happen affordably and on an accelerated schedule,” said Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Sir Peter Beck. “Rocket Lab has been methodically implementing a strategy for cost-effective planetary science in recent years, making us uniquely suited to deliver a low-cost, rapid Mars Sample Return. We’ve demonstrated this strategy by delivering a NASA mission to the Moon, enabling rendezvous and proximity operations in orbit, successfully re-entering a capsule from orbit to Earth, delivering two spacecraft to NASA for a Mars mission, and much more. We look forward to bringing our proven capabilities together to deliver a compelling, innovative mission solution that puts Mars rocks in the hands of scientists sooner.”

Rocket Lab’s proposed mission architecture will be revealed once the study is complete in the coming months.

Source: Rocket Lab

DART's Successor Is on Its Way to Didymos...

SpaceX

Planetary Defence Mission Hera Heading for Deflected Asteroid (News Release)

ESA’s first planetary defence spacecraft has departed planet Earth. The Hera mission is headed to a unique target among the more than 1.3 million known asteroids in our Solar System – the only body to have had its orbit shifted by human action – to solve lingering mysteries associated with its deflection.

By sharpening scientific understanding of the ‘kinetic impact’ technique of asteroid deflection, Hera aims to make Earth safer. The mission is part of a broader ambition to turn terrestrial asteroid impacts into a fully-avoidable class of natural disaster.

Developed as part of ESA’s Space Safety programme and sharing technological heritage with the agency’s Rosetta comet hunter, Hera lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA, on 7 October at 10:52 local time (16:52 CEST, 14:52 UTC) with its solar arrays deploying about one hour later.

The automobile-sized Hera will carry out the first detailed survey of a ‘binary’ – or double-body – asteroid, 65803 Didymos, which is orbited by a smaller body, Dimorphos. Hera’s main focus will be on the smaller of the two, whose orbit around the larger asteroid was changed by NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, demonstrating asteroid deflection by kinetic impact, in 2022.

“Planetary defence is an inherently international endeavour, and I am really happy to see ESA’s Hera spacecraft at the forefront of Europe’s efforts to help protect Earth. Hera is a bold step in scaling up ESA’s engagement in planetary defence,” said ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher.

Hera will also perform challenging deep-space technology experiments including the deployment of twin shoebox-sized CubeSats to fly closer to the target asteroid, manoeuvring in ultra-low gravity to acquire additional scientific data before eventually landing. The main spacecraft will also attempt ‘self-driving’ navigation around the asteroids based on visual tracking.

The mission’s launch and journey into deep space is being overseen from ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

“Hera is finally on its way to Didymos; today we are writing a new page of space history,” said Hera mission manager Ian Carnelli. “This deep space mission took shape from contract signing to launch in only four years, a testimony to the hard work and dedication of the Hera team across ESA, European industry, science and the Japanese space agency JAXA.”

“But the underlying idea of a planetary defence mission based on one spacecraft impacting an asteroid with a second that gathers data goes back two decades, with a significant contribution made by the late Prof. Andrea Milani, a pioneer in asteroid risk monitoring whose name has been lent to one of Hera’s two onboard CubeSats.”

ESA, together with NASA and other partner agencies, maintains a watch on the sky to identify and track dangerous asteroids. But if an incoming body was spotted, what if anything could be done to stop it?

NASA’s DART mission was created to help answer that question. On 26 September 2022, the DART spacecraft performed humankind’s first asteroid deflection by intentionally crashing into Dimorphos, the Great-Pyramid-sized moonlet of the larger, mountain-sized asteroid Didymos, shifting its orbit.

Based on observations from Earth, DART succeeded in shrinking the orbital period of Dimorphos around Didymos by 33 minutes, nearly 5% of its original value, while also casting a plume of debris thousands of kilometres in space.

But many unknowns remain about the event, which scientists need to resolve in order to help turn this ‘kinetic impact’ method of asteroid deflection into a well-understood and reliably-repeatable planetary defence technique. How big was the crater left by DART’s impact, or did the entire asteroid undergo reshaping? What is the mineralogy, structure and precise mass of Dimorphos?

With a cube-shaped main body measuring approximately 1.6 meters across and flanked by twin 5-meter solar wings, the Hera spacecraft is ESA’s own contribution to this international planetary defence collaboration. Once it reaches the Didymos binary asteroid in two years’ time, the mission will perform a close-up ‘crash scene investigation’ to gather all of the missing knowledge needed.

“Hera’s ability to closely study its asteroid target will be just what is needed for operational planetary defence,” explains Richard Moissl, heading ESA’s Planetary Defence Office. “You can imagine a scenario where a reconnaissance mission is dispatched rapidly, to assess if any follow-up deflection action is needed. We should soon be practicing this again with our Ramses spacecraft, a proposed planetary defence mission to rendezvous with the Apophis asteroid during its close approach to Earth in 2029.”

Around 100 European companies and institutes across 18 ESA Member States have been involved in developing the Hera mission. OHB System AG led the industrial consortium, including responsibility for the overall spacecraft design, development, assembly and testing.

Hera will perform the most detailed exploration yet of a binary asteroid system. Although binaries make up 15% of all known asteroids, none has ever been surveyed in detail. In addition, the Dimorphos asteroid is the smallest body yet visited by a space mission while Didymos is a fast spinner for its size, coming close to the limits of structural stability given its dimensions.

The Milani CubeSat, developed for ESA by Italian industry led by Tyvak International, will survey the mineral makeup of Dimorphos and its surrounding dust, while the Juventas CubeSat, produced by a Luxembourg-led consortium under GOMspace, will perform the first subsurface radar probe of an asteroid. Late in its six-month asteroid survey, Hera will also test out an experimental self-driving mode that will allow it to navigate around the asteroids autonomously based on monitoring of surface features.

ESA Hera mission scientist Michael Kueppers comments: “By the end of Hera’s mission, the Didymos pair should become the best studied asteroids in history, helping to secure Earth from the threat of incoming asteroids.”

Hera Principal Investigator Patrick Michel, Director of Research at CNRS / Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, adds: “DART’s impact was like the first episode in a cosmic adventure – a spectacular flash seen across space that left scientists with the question: what happened next?”

“Now Hera is on its way in the next episode, to turn the brief glimpses of the Didymos asteroids that the DART mission beamed back to us into a detailed survey, promising us fresh insights into the planetary collision process – which has been one of the primary mechanisms for creating the Solar System as we know it.”

Today’s launch put Hera on a direct-departure trajectory away from Earth, beginning its two-year cruise phase. A scheduled manoeuvre next month will be followed by a swingby of Mars in March 2025, which will give the spacecraft added velocity for its eventual rendezvous with Didymos. During the Mars gravity assist, Hera will perform a survey of martian moon Deimos, deploying its instruments for scientific use for the first time.

The arrival at Didymos is foreseen for autumn 2026, when the asteroid mission will enter its main science and technology demonstration phase.

Source: European Space Agency

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SpaceX


ESA - Science Office

America's Next Jupiter-bound Orbiter Will Not Launch Next Thursday, October 10, As Planned...

NASA

NASA, SpaceX Secure Europa Clipper Ahead of Hurricane (News Release)

NASA and SpaceX are standing down from the Thursday, October 10, launch attempt of the agency’s Europa Clipper mission due to anticipated hurricane conditions in the area. Hurricane Milton is expected to move from the Gulf of Mexico this week, heading east to the Space Coast. High winds and heavy rain are expected in the Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island regions on Florida’s east coast.

Launch teams have secured NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft in SpaceX’s hangar at Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of the severe weather, and the center began hurricane preparations on Sunday.

“The safety of launch team personnel is our highest priority, and all precautions will be taken to protect the Europa Clipper spacecraft,” said Tim Dunn, senior launch director at NASA’s Launch Services Program.

On October 4, workers transported NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft from the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in the hangar as part of final launch preparations ahead of its journey to Jupiter’s icy moon. While Europa Clipper’s launch period opens on October 10, the window provides launch opportunities until Wednesday, November 6.

Once the storm passes, recovery teams will assess the safety of the spaceport before personnel return to work. Then launch teams will assess the launch processing facilities for damage from the storm.

“Once we have the ‘all-clear’ followed by facility assessment and any recovery actions, we will determine the next launch opportunity for this NASA flagship mission,” said Dunn.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / Ben Smegelsky

America's Next Jupiter-bound Orbiter Meets Its SpaceX Rocket Fairings...

NASA / Ben Smegelsky

NASA’s Europa Clipper Mated to Payload Adapter, Encapsulated (News Release - October 4)

NASA and SpaceX technicians recently completed several important milestones as they prepare for the upcoming launch of the agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft to explore Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.

First, teams connected the Europa Clipper spacecraft to the payload adapter on Thursday, September 26, inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. With Europa Clipper securely attached to the payload adapter, the team then connected the combined assembly to the payload attach fitting on Monday, September 30. These operations will enable the spacecraft to join with the rocket in the coming days.

Next, teams detached various coverings that shielded sensitive parts of the spacecraft during processing. Finally, on Wednesday, October 2, teams encapsulated the spacecraft inside payload fairings, which will protect the spacecraft from aerodynamic pressure and heat during launch. After liftoff, the fairings will separate once the rocket’s second stage climbs high enough, approximately 5 minutes into the flight, and the fairings will return to Earth where SpaceX plans to recover them.

NASA is targeting Thursday, October 10, for launching Europa Clipper on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy. This will start a years-long journey to Jupiter, where it will help scientists determine if the enigmatic moon has conditions suitable to support life.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / Ben Smegelsky


NASA / Ben Smegelsky


NASA / Ben Smegelsky


NASA / Ben Smegelsky


NASA / Ben Smegelsky