NASA Is Enhancing Its Ability to Communicate with Humanity's Farthest Interstellar Probe...

MDSCC / INTA, Francisco "Paco" Moreno

Six Deep Space Network Antennas in Madrid Arrayed For the First Time (Photo Release)

In a historic first, all six radio frequency antennas at the Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex – part of NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) – carried out a test to receive data from the agency's Voyager 1 spacecraft at the same time on April 20, 2024. Known as "arraying," combining the receiving power of several antennas allows the DSN to collect the very faint signals from faraway spacecraft.

A five-antenna array is currently needed to downlink science data from the spacecraft's Plasma Wave System (PWS) instrument. As Voyager gets further way, six antennas will be needed.

The Voyager team is currently working to fix an issue on the spacecraft that has prevented it from sending back science data since November.

Though the antennas located at the DSN's three complexes – Goldstone in California, Canberra in Australia, and Madrid – have been arrayed before, this is the first instance of six antennas being arrayed at once. Madrid is the only deep space communication complex currently with six operational antennas (the other two complexes have four apiece).

Each complex consists of one 70-meter (230-foot) antenna and several 34-meter (112-foot) antennas.

Voyager 1 is over 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away, so its signal on Earth is far fainter than any other spacecraft with which the DSN communicates. It currently takes Voyager 1's signal over 22 ½ hours to travel from the spacecraft to Earth.

To better receive Voyager 1's radio communications, a large antenna – or an array of multiple smaller antennas – can be used.

Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, are the only spacecraft ever to fly in interstellar space (the space between stars).

Source: NASA.Gov

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Caltech / NASA - JPL

All attention on @NASAVoyager 📡

Last weekend at the Deep Space Network complex in Madrid, Spain, all six antennas were arrayed to receive data from #Voyager1. The combined receiving power will be necessary as the spacecraft travels further into interstellar space. pic.twitter.com/Yt9ywJvpRO

— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) April 26, 2024

The Psyche Spacecraft Successfully Shoots a Laser Beam Back to Earth from Mars' Distance...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

NASA’s Optical Comms Demo Transmits Data Over 140 Million Miles (News Release)

NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications experiment also interfaced with the Psyche spacecraft’s communication system for the first time, transmitting engineering data to Earth.

Riding aboard NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, the agency’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration continues to break records. While the asteroid-bound spacecraft doesn’t rely on optical communications to send data, the new technology has proven that it’s up to the task.

After interfacing with the Psyche’s radio frequency transmitter, the laser communications demo sent a copy of engineering data from over 140 million miles (226 million kilometers) away, 1½ times the distance between Earth and the Sun.

This achievement provides a glimpse into how spacecraft could use optical communications in the future, enabling higher-data-rate communications of complex scientific information as well as high-definition imagery and video in support of humanity’s next giant leap: sending humans to Mars.

“We downlinked about 10 minutes of duplicated spacecraft data during a pass on April 8,” said Meera Srinivasan, the project’s operations lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Until then, we’d been sending test and diagnostic data in our downlinks from Psyche. This represents a significant milestone for the project by showing how optical communications can interface with a spacecraft’s radio frequency comms system.”

The laser communications technology in this demo is designed to transmit data from deep space at rates 10 to 100 times faster than the state-of-the-art radio frequency systems used by deep-space missions today.

After launching on October 13, 2023, the spacecraft remains healthy and stable as it journeys to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter to visit the asteroid Psyche.

Surpassing Expectations

NASA’s optical communications demonstration has shown that it can transmit test data at a maximum rate of 267 megabits per second (Mbps) from the flight laser transceiver’s near-infrared downlink laser — a bit rate comparable to broadband internet download speeds.

That was achieved on December 11, 2023, when the experiment beamed a 15-second ultra-high-definition video to Earth from 19 million miles away (31 million kilometers, or about 80 times the Earth-Moon distance). The video, along with other test data, including digital versions of Arizona State University’s Psyche Inspired artwork, had been loaded onto the flight laser transceiver before Psyche launched last year.

Now that the spacecraft is more than seven times farther away, the rate at which it can send and receive data is reduced, as expected. During the April 8 test, the spacecraft transmitted test data at a maximum rate of 25 Mbps, which far surpasses the project’s goal of proving at least 1 Mbps was possible at that distance.

The project team also commanded the transceiver to transmit Psyche-generated data optically. While Psyche was transmitting data over its radio frequency channel to NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), the optical communications system simultaneously transmitted a portion of the same data to the Hale Telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California — the tech demo’s primary downlink ground station.

“After receiving the data from the DSN and Palomar, we verified the optically-downlinked data at JPL,” said Ken Andrews, project flight operations lead at JPL. “It was a small amount of data downlinked over a short time frame, but the fact we’re doing this now has surpassed all of our expectations.”

Fun With Lasers

After Psyche launched, the optical communications demo was initially used to downlink pre-loaded data, including the Taters the cat video. Since then, the project has proven that the transceiver can receive data from the high-power uplink laser at JPL’s Table Mountain facility, near Wrightwood, California.

Data can even be sent to the transceiver and then downlinked back to Earth on the same night, as the project proved in a recent “turnaround experiment.”

This experiment relayed test data — as well as digital pet photographs — to Psyche and back again, a round trip of up to 280 million miles (450 million kilometers). It also downlinked large amounts of the tech demo’s own engineering data to study the characteristics of the optical communications link.

“We’ve learned a great deal about how far we can push the system when we do have clear skies, although storms have interrupted operations at both Table Mountain and Palomar on occasion,” said Ryan Rogalin, the project’s receiver electronics lead at JPL. (Whereas radio frequency communications can operate in most weather conditions, optical communications require relatively clear skies to transmit high-bandwidth data.)

JPL recently led an experiment to combine Palomar, the experimental radio frequency-optical antenna at the DSN’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in Barstow, California, and a detector at Table Mountain to receive the same signal in concert. “Arraying” multiple ground stations to mimic one large receiver can help boost the deep space signal.

This strategy can also be useful if one ground station is forced offline due to weather conditions; other stations can still receive the signal.

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

A Bullet Train Will Soon Travel Between Sin City and California's Inland Empire...

Brightline West

Making History: Brightline West Breaks Ground on America's First High-Speed Rail Project Connecting Las Vegas to Southern California (Press Release - April 22)

Officials Hammer the First Spike Commemorating the Groundbreaking for Brightline West

LAS VEGAS – Today, Brightline West officially broke ground on the nation's first true high-speed rail system which will connect Las Vegas to Southern California. The 218-mile system will be constructed in the middle of the I-15 and is based on Brightline’s vision to connect city pairs that are too short to fly and too far to drive.

Hailed as the greenest form of transportation in the world, Brightline West will run zero-emission, fully-electric trains capable of speeds of 200 miles per hour. Brightline West is a watershed project for high-speed rail in America and will establish the foundation for the creation of a new industry and supply chain.

The project was recently awarded $3 billion in funding from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. The rest of the project will be privately funded and has received a total allocation of $3.5 billion in private activity bonds from USDOT.

The groundbreaking included remarks from U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Brightline Founder Wes Edens, Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, Sen. Jacky Rosen, Senior Advisor to President Biden Steve Benjamin and Vince Saavedra of the Southern Nevada Building Trades. In addition, Nevada Reps. Dina Titus, Susie Lee and Steve Horsford and California Reps. Pete Aguilar and Norma Torres made remarks and joined the celebration.

More than 600 people, including union representatives, project supporters and other state and local officials from California and Nevada, attended the event.

“People have been dreaming of high-speed rail in America for decades – and now, with billions of dollars of support made possible by President Biden’s historic infrastructure law, it’s finally happening,” said Secretary Buttigieg. “Partnering with state leaders and Brightline West, we’re writing a new chapter in our country’s transportation story that includes thousands of union jobs, new connections to better economic opportunity, less congestion on the roads, and less pollution in the air.”

“This is a historic project and a proud moment where we break ground on America’s first high-speed rail system and lay the foundation for a new industry,” said Wes Edens, Brightline founder. “Today is long overdue, but the blueprint we’ve created with Brightline will allow us to repeat this model in other city pairs around the country.”

Construction of Brightline West

Brightline West's rail system will span 218 miles and reach speeds of 200 mph. The route, which has full environmental clearance, will run within the median of the I-15 highway with zero grade crossings.

The system will have stops in Las Vegas, Nevada, as well as Victor Valley, Hesperia and Rancho Cucamonga, California.

The privately-led infrastructure project is one of the largest in the nation and will be constructed and operated by union labor. It will use 700,000 concrete rail ties, 2.2 million tons of ballast, and 63,000 tons of 100% American steel rail during construction.

Upon completion, Brightline West will include 322 miles of overhead lines to power the trains and will include 3.4 million square feet of retaining walls. The project covers more than 160 structures including viaducts and bridges.

Brightline West will be fully Buy America Compliant.

Stations and Facilities

Brightline West will connect Southern California and Las Vegas in two hours or almost half the time as driving. The Las Vegas Station will be located near the iconic Las Vegas Strip, on a 110-acre property north of Blue Diamond Road between I-15 and Las Vegas Boulevard.

The station provides convenient access to the Harry Reid International Airport, the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium. The station is approximately 80,000 square-feet plus parking.

The Victor Valley Station in Apple Valley will be located on a 300-acre parcel southeast of Dale Evans Parkway and the I-15 interchange. The station is intended to offer a future connection to the High Desert Corridor and California High Speed Rail.

The Victor Valley Station is approximately 20,000 square-feet plus parking.

The Rancho Cucamonga Station will be located on a 5-acre property at the northwest corner of Milliken Avenue and Azusa Court near Ontario International Airport. The station will be co-located with existing multi-modal transportation options including California Metrolink, for seamless connectivity to Downtown Los Angeles and other locations in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties.

The Rancho Cucamonga Station is approximately 80,000 square-feet plus parking.

The Hesperia Station will be located within the I-15 median at the I-15/Joshua Street interchange and will function primarily as a local rail service for residents in the High Desert on select southbound morning and northbound evening weekday trains.

The Vehicle Maintenance Facility (VMF) is a 200,000-square-foot building located on 238 acres in Sloan, Nevada, and will be the base for daily maintenance and staging of trains. This site will also serve as one of two hubs for the maintenance of way operations and the operations control center.

More than 100 permanent employees will report on a daily basis once operations begin and will serve as train crews, corridor maintenance crews or operations control center teammates. A second maintenance of way facility will be located adjacent to the Apple Valley station.

Market

The Las Vegas and Southern California travel market is one of the nation’s most attractive corridors with over 50 million trips between the region each year. Additionally, Las Vegas continues to attract visitors from around the world, with 4.7 million international travelers flying into the destination.

The city dubs itself on being the world’s No. 1 meeting destination, welcoming nearly 6 million people to the Las Vegas Convention Center last year.

In California, approximately 17 million Southern California residents are within 25 miles of the Brightline West station sites. Studies show that one out of every three visits to Las Vegas come from Southern California.

Economic & Environmental Benefits

Brightline West's $12 billion infrastructure investment will create over $10 billion in economic impact for Nevada and California and will generate more than 35,000 jobs, including 10,000 direct union construction roles and 1,000 permanent operations and maintenance positions. The investment also includes over $800 million in improvements to the I-15 corridor and involves agreements with several unions for skilled labor.

The project supports Nevada and California's climate goals by offering a no-emission mobility option that reduces greenhouse gasses by over 400,000 tons of CO2 annually – reducing vehicle miles traveled by more than 700 million each year and the equivalent of 16,000 short-haul flights. The company will also construct three wildlife overpasses, in partnership with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and Caltrans for the safe passage of native species, primarily the bighorn sheep.

Source: Brightline West

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On behalf of the Biden administration, it was my great honor to help break ground on what's expected to be the first operating high-speed rail line in American history! pic.twitter.com/VJjz849t03

— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) April 23, 2024

Normal Communication Is Close to Being Fully Restored with Humanity's Farthest Interstellar Probe...

Caltech / NASA - JPL

NASA’s Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to Earth (News Release)

After some inventive sleuthing, the mission team can — for the first time in five months — check the health and status of the most distant human-made object in existence.

For the first time since November, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems. The next step is to enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again.

The probe and its twin, Voyager 2, are the only spacecraft to ever fly in interstellar space (the space between stars).

Voyager 1 stopped sending readable science and engineering data back to Earth on November 14, 2023, even though mission controllers could tell the spacecraft was still receiving their commands and otherwise operating normally. In March, the Voyager engineering team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed that the issue was tied to one of the spacecraft’s three onboard computers, called the flight data subsystem (FDS).

The FDS is responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it’s sent to Earth.

The team discovered that a single chip responsible for storing a portion of the FDS memory — including some of the FDS computer’s software code — isn’t working. The loss of that code rendered the science and engineering data unusable.

Unable to repair the chip, the team decided to place the affected code elsewhere in the FDS memory. But no single location is large enough to hold the section of code in its entirety.

So they devised a plan to divide the affected code into sections and store those sections in different places in the FDS. To make this plan work, they also needed to adjust those code sections to ensure, for example, that they all still function as a whole.

Any references to the location of that code in other parts of the FDS memory needed to be updated as well.

The team started by singling out the code responsible for packaging the spacecraft’s engineering data. They sent it to its new location in the FDS memory on April 18.

A radio signal takes about 22 ½ hours to reach Voyager 1, which is over 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, and another 22 ½ hours for a signal to come back to Earth. When the mission flight team heard back from the spacecraft on April 20, they saw that the modification worked: For the first time in five months, they have been able to check the health and status of the spacecraft.

During the coming weeks, the team will relocate and adjust the other affected portions of the FDS software. These include the portions that will start returning science data.

Voyager 2 continues to operate normally. Launched over 46 years ago, the twin Voyager spacecraft are the longest-running and most distant spacecraft in history.

Before the start of their interstellar exploration, both probes flew by Saturn and Jupiter, and Voyager 2 flew by Uranus and Neptune.

Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA.

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Photos of the Day: Visiting the First Mamba Statue in Downtown LA...

Richard T. Par

A few hours ago, I drove down to Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles to see Kobe Bryant's statue...the first of three that will be made in honor of the late and great Lakers champion.

Compared to the statues of other Lakers players (such as Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the late Elgin Baylor, as well as the L.A. Kings' Wayne Gretzky and Dustin Brown) on display at Crypto.com's Star Plaza, Kobe's monument is much more adorned—with the five championship trophies that the Mamba won during his 20-year NBA career near his feet, a quote by Kobe and his Nike logo on one side of his statue's pedestal, and Kobe's player stats and a photo of him raising an arm to celebrate his 81-point game in 2006 (directly above and below) on the other side of the pedestal.

It hasn't been publicized as to when the last two statues of the Mamba will be unveiled, but I can't wait to see them in person as well!


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A Quadcopter Is Officially Set to Travel to an Ocean World in Our Outer Solar System 4 Years from Now...

NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Steve Gribben

NASA’s Dragonfly Rotorcraft Mission to Saturn’s Moon Titan Confirmed (News Release)

NASA has confirmed its Dragonfly rotorcraft mission to Saturn’s organic-rich moon Titan. The decision allows the mission to progress to completion of final design, followed by the construction and testing of the entire spacecraft and science instruments.

“Dragonfly is a spectacular science mission with broad community interest, and we are excited to take the next steps on this mission," said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Exploring Titan will push the boundaries of what we can do with rotorcraft outside of Earth.”

In early 2023, the mission successfully passed all the success criteria of its Preliminary Design Review. At that time, however, the mission was asked to develop an updated budget and schedule to fit into the current funding environment.

This updated plan was presented and conditionally approved in November 2023, pending the outcome of the fiscal year 2025 budget process. In the meantime, the mission was authorized to proceed with work on final mission design and fabrication to ensure that the mission stayed on schedule.

With the release of the president’s fiscal year 2025 budget request, Dragonfly is confirmed with a total lifecycle cost of $3.35 billion and a launch date of July 2028. This reflects a cost increase of about two times the proposed cost and a delay of more than two years from when the mission was originally selected in 2019.

Following that selection, NASA had to direct the project to replan multiple times due to funding constraints in fiscal years 2020 through 2022. The project incurred additional costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain increases, and the results of an in-depth design iteration.

To compensate for the delayed arrival at Titan, NASA also provided additional funding for a heavy-lift launch vehicle to shorten the mission’s cruise phase.

The rotorcraft, targeted to arrive at Titan in 2034, will fly to dozens of promising locations on the moon, looking for prebiotic chemical processes common on both Titan and the early Earth before life developed. Dragonfly marks the first time that NASA will fly a vehicle for science on another planetary body.

The rotorcraft has eight rotors and flies like a large drone.

Dragonfly is being designed and built under the direction of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, which manages the mission for NASA. Elizabeth Turtle of APL is the principal investigator.

The team includes key partners at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado; NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California; NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia; Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania; Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, California; Honeybee Robotics in Pasadena, California; NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California; CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) in Paris; the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne, Germany; and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in Tokyo.

Dragonfly is the fourth mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Source: NASA.Gov

America and Europe's Next Flagship Mission to the Red Planet Is Goin' Back to the Drawing Board...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

NASA Sets Path to Return Mars Samples, Seeks Innovative Designs (Press Release)

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson shared on Monday the agency’s path forward on the Mars Sample Return program, including seeking innovative designs to return valuable samples from Mars to Earth. Such samples will not only help us understand the formation and evolution of our solar system but can be used to prepare for future human explorers and to aid in NASA’s search for signs of ancient life.

Over the last quarter century, NASA has engaged in a systematic effort to determine the early history of Mars and how it can help us understand the formation and evolution of habitable worlds, including Earth. As part of that effort, Mars Sample Return has been a long-term goal of international planetary exploration for the past two decades.

NASA’s Perseverance rover has been collecting samples for later collection and return to Earth since it landed on Mars in 2021.

“Mars Sample Return will be one of the most complex missions NASA has ever undertaken. The bottom line is, an $11 billion budget is too expensive, and a 2040 return date is too far away,” said Nelson. “Safely landing and collecting the samples, launching a rocket with the samples off another planet – which has never been done before – and safely transporting the samples more than 33 million miles back to Earth is no small task. We need to look outside the box to find a way ahead that is both affordable and returns samples in a reasonable timeframe.”

The agency has also released NASA’s response to a Mars Sample Return Independent Review Board report from September 2023. This includes: an updated mission design with reduced complexity; improved resiliency; risk posture; stronger accountability and coordination; and an overall budget likely in the $8 billion to $11 billion range.

Given the Fiscal Year 2025 budget and anticipated budget constraints, as well as the need to maintain a balanced science portfolio, the current mission design will return samples in 2040.

To achieve the ambitious goal of returning the key samples to Earth earlier and at a lower cost, the agency is asking the NASA community to work together to develop a revised plan that leverages innovation and proven technology. Additionally, NASA will soon solicit architecture proposals from industry that could return samples in the 2030s, and lowers cost, risk and mission complexity.

“NASA does visionary science – and returning diverse, scientifically-relevant samples from Mars is a key priority,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “To organize a mission at this level of complexity, we employ decades of lessons on how to run a large mission, including incorporating the input we get from conducting independent reviews. Our next steps will position us to bring this transformational mission forward and deliver revolutionary science from Mars -- providing critical new insights into the origins and evolution of Mars, our solar system, and life on Earth.”

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Update on #SamplingMars: I recently collected my 24th sample from an area called "Bunsen Peak" (named for the @YellowstoneNPS landmark). The rock core is filled with silica and carbonate. https://t.co/PJeNVCluNV pic.twitter.com/6Oi12jeNJ0

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) April 3, 2024

Mainstream Journalists Finally Got to Check Out a Spacecraft That I Saw in Person Twice Last Year...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

Media Get Close-Up of NASA’s Jupiter-Bound Europa Clipper (News Release)

Excitement is mounting as the largest spacecraft that NASA has ever built for a planetary mission gets readied for an October launch.

Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California are running final tests and preparing the agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft for the next leg of its journey: launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Europa Clipper, which will orbit Jupiter and focus on the planet’s ice-encased moon Europa, is expected to leave JPL later this spring.

Europa Clipper's launch period opens on October 10.

Members of the media put on “bunny suits” — outfits to protect the massive spacecraft from contamination — to see Europa Clipper up close in JPL’s historic Spacecraft Assembly Facility on Thursday, April 11. Project Manager Jordan Evans, Launch-to-Mars Mission Manager Tracy Drain, Project Staff Scientist Samuel Howell, and Assembly, Test and Launch Operations Cable Harness Engineer Luis Aguila were on the clean room floor, while Deputy Project Manager Tim Larson and Mission Designer Ricardo Restrepo were in the gallery above to explain the mission and its goals.

Planning of the mission began in 2013, and Europa Clipper was officially confirmed by NASA as a mission in 2019. The trip to Jupiter is expected to take about six years, with flybys of Mars and Earth.

Reaching the gas giant in 2030, the spacecraft will orbit Jupiter while flying by Europa dozens of times, dipping as close as 16 miles (25 kilometers) from the moon’s surface to gather data with its powerful suite of science instruments. The information will help scientists learn about the ocean beneath the moon’s icy shell, map Europa’s surface composition and geology, and hunt for any potential plumes of water vapor that may be venting from the crust.

“After over a decade of hard work and problem-solving, we’re so proud to show the nearly-complete Europa Clipper spacecraft to the world,” said Evans. “As critical components came in from institutions across the globe, it’s been exciting to see parts become a greater whole. We can’t wait to get this spacecraft to the Jupiter system.”

At the event, a cutaway model showing the moon’s layers and a globe of the moon helped journalists learn why Europa is such an interesting object of study. On hand with the details were Project Staff Scientist and Assistant Science Systems Engineer Kate Craft from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, and, from JPL, Project Scientist Robert Pappalardo, Deputy Project Scientist Bonnie Buratti and Science Communications Lead Cynthia Phillips.

Beyond Earth, Europa is considered one of the most promising potentially-habitable environments in our solar system. While Europa Clipper is not a life-detection mission, its primary science goal is to determine whether there are places below the moon’s icy surface that could support life.

When the main part of the spacecraft arrives at Kennedy Space Center in a few months, engineers will finish preparing Europa Clipper for launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, attaching its giant solar arrays and carefully tucking the spacecraft inside the capsule that rides on top of the rocket. Then Europa Clipper will be ready to begin its space odyssey.

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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Photos of the Day: A 2nd Falcon 9 Lights Up the SoCal Sky This Week...

Richard T. Par

Only five days after a previous Falcon 9 rocket launched with 22 Starlink spacecraft to low-Earth orbit, a second Falcon 9 took to the skies a few hours ago at 7:25 PM, PDT...sending 21 additional Starlink satellites to space. The photos in this Blog entry were taken from Summitridge Park in Diamond Bar, California.

This is the third SpaceX launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California, in almost three weeks—and it's definitely likely that another Falcon 9 will grace the SoCal sky soon! I'm just hoping that as summer approaches, SpaceX will conduct a launch a bit later in the evening.

When the summer solstice arrives (on June 20), there will still be broad daylight around the 7:30 PM timeframe during which the three previous Falcon 9s took off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg. As you can see in these images, the contrail from the rocket isn't as bright as in the earlier flights because the Sun set only 8 minutes before liftoff.

Might I suggest that SpaceX launches the next Starlink mission between 7:45 PM to 8:15 PM, Pacific Time? I'm usually out walking around my neighborhood during that time if I'm not working that day.

Happy Saturday evening!


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SpaceX sends 21 more #Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit...as seen from the city of Diamond Bar in California!#Falcon9 #SoCal #LACounty pic.twitter.com/TPRsKI7CdL

— Rich Par (@AstroPnoy) April 7, 2024

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Has Imaged Another Spacecraft Orbiting the Moon (and Vice Versa)...

NASA / Goddard / Arizona State University

NASA’s LRO Finds Photo Op as It Zips Past South Korea’s Danuri Moon Orbiter (News Release)

NASA’s LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter), which has been circling and studying the Moon for 15 years, captured several images of Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s Danuri lunar orbiter last month. The two spacecraft, traveling in nearly parallel orbits, zipped past each other in opposite directions between March 5 and 6, 2024.

LRO’s narrow angle camera (one in a suite of cameras known as “LROC”) captured the images featured here during three orbits that happened to be close enough to Danuri’s to grab snapshots.

Due to the fast relative velocities between the two spacecraft (about 7,200 miles, or 1,500 kilometers, per hour), the LRO operations team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, needed exquisite timing in pointing LROC to the right place at the right time to catch a glimpse of Danuri, the Republic of Korea’s first spacecraft at the Moon. Danuri has been in lunar orbit since December 2022.

Although LRO’s camera exposure time was very short, only 0.338 milliseconds, Danuri still appears smeared to 10 times its size in the opposite direction of travel because of the relative high-travel velocities between the two spacecraft.

LRO is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Launched on June 18, 2009, LRO has collected a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments, making an invaluable contribution to our knowledge about the Moon.

NASA is returning to the Moon with commercial and international partners to expand human presence in space and bring back new knowledge and opportunities.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / Goddard / Arizona State University


NASA / KARI / Arizona State University

Photos of the Day: A Falcon 9 Lights Up the SoCal Sky Once More...

Richard T. Par

Two weeks after a previous Falcon 9 rocket launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California, another SpaceX booster lifted off from the West Coast launch site as well (at 7:30 PM, PDT)...sending another 22 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit.

Unlike the March 18 launch, I knew about yesterday's flight a few days in advance. Last time, I wasn't sure if I was in the mood to get dressed with few minutes to spare and drive somewhere that provided a great view of Falcon 9 shooting up into the Southern California sky.

In terms of last night, on the other hand, I got dressed (after eating dinner around 6:30 PM, PDT) and walked down my street to where the neighborhood mailbox was located. This spot provided an awesome, unimpeded view of the patch of sky that Falcon 9 was gonna fly through as it made its way to space.

Much like what I did two weeks ago, I used my Google Pixel 4A smartphone to take photos of SpaceX's airborne twilight spectacle.

I look forward to the next evening launch of Falcon 9 from Vandenberg...which is almost 200 miles from where I live! But it would be just as cool if another company's rocket—I'm looking at you, United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Vulcan Centaur—graced the SoCal sky at dusk as well.

I'm sure that ULA will make this a reality...eventually. Happy Belated April Fools' Day!


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Lookin' forward to the next Vandenberg-based evening launch to capture with my smartphone#SpaceX #Falcon9 #Starlink #SoCal #LACounty pic.twitter.com/dw8F3nd5m4

— Rich Par (@AstroPnoy) April 2, 2024

NASA's Artemis Moon Rover Is Now 88% Assembled...

NASA / Helen Arase Vargas

NASA VIPER Robotic Moon Rover Team Raises Its Mighty Mast (News Release)

NASA’s VIPER – short for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover – now stands taller and more capable than ever. And that’s thanks to its mast.

VIPER’s mast, and the suite of instruments affixed to it, looks a lot like the rover’s “neck” and “head.” The mast instruments are designed to help the team of rover drivers and real-time scientists send commands and receive data while the rover navigates around hazardous crater slopes, boulders and places that risk communications blackouts.

The team will use these instruments, along with four science payloads, to scout the lunar South Pole. During its approximately 100-day mission, VIPER seeks to better understand the origin of water and other resources on the Moon, as well as the extreme environment where NASA plans to send astronauts as part of the Artemis campaign.

The tip of VIPER’s mast stands approximately eight feet (2.5 meters) above its wheel rims and is equipped with a pair of stereo navigation cameras, a pair of powerful LED headlights, as well as a low- and high-gain antenna to transmit data to and receive data from the Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas on Earth.

The stereo navigation cameras – the “eyes” of the rover – are mounted to a part of the mast that gimbals, allowing the team to pan them as much as 400 degrees around and tilt them up and down as much as 75 degrees. The VIPER team will use the navigation cameras to take sweeping panoramas of the rover’s surroundings and images to detect and further study surface features such as rocks and craters as small as four inches (10 cm) in diameter – or about the length of a pencil – from as far as 50 feet (15 meters) away.

And because the navigation cameras are mounted up high, it gives the VIPER team a near human-like perspective as the rover explores areas of scientific interest around the Moon’s South Pole.

Due to the extremes of light and darkness found on the Moon, VIPER will be the first planetary rover to have headlights. The headlights will cast a narrow, long-distance beam – much like a car’s high beams – to help the team reveal obstacles or interesting terrain features that would otherwise stay hidden in the shadows.

Positioned next to the rover’s two navigation cameras, the lights feature arrays of blue LEDs that the rover navigation team determined would provide the best visibility given the challenging lighting conditions on the Moon.

In order to transmit large amounts of data across the 240,000 miles (384,000 km) that separate Earth and the Moon, VIPER has a gimballing precision-pointed, high-gain antenna that will send information along a very focused, narrow beam. Its low-gain antenna will also send data but using radio waves at a much lower data rate.

The ability for the antennas to maintain the correct orientation, even while driving, serves a critical function: without it, the rover cannot receive commands while in motion on the Moon and cannot transmit any of its data back to Earth for scientists to achieve their mission goals. All that data is then transferred from the DSN to the Multi-Mission Operations and Control Center at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, where rover operations are based.

Prior to installation on the rover, engineers put the mast through a variety of testing. This included time in a thermal vacuum chamber to verify that the white coating surrounding the mast insulates as intended.

After the mast’s integration in the clean room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the team also successfully performed check-outs of its components and for the first time sent data through the rover using its antennas.

VIPER is part of the Lunar Discovery and Exploration Program and is managed by the Planetary Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. VIPER will launch to the Moon aboard Astrobotic’s Griffin lunar lander on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.

VIPER will reach its destination at Mons Mouton near the Moon’s South Pole.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / Josh Valcarcel