InSight Won't Launch This Year... That's A Bummer

NASA / JPL - Caltech / Lockheed Martin

NASA Suspends 2016 Launch of InSight Mission to Mars (Press Release)

After thorough examination, NASA managers have decided to suspend the planned March 2016 launch of the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission. The decision follows unsuccessful attempts to repair a leak in a section of the prime instrument in the science payload.

“Learning about the interior structure of Mars has been a high priority objective for planetary scientists since the Viking era,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “We push the boundaries of space technology with our missions to enable science, but space exploration is unforgiving, and the bottom line is that we’re not ready to launch in the 2016 window. A decision on a path forward will be made in the coming months, but one thing is clear: NASA remains fully committed to the scientific discovery and exploration of Mars.”

The instrument involved is the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), a seismometer provided by France’s Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES). Designed to measure ground movements as small as the diameter of an atom, the instrument requires a vacuum seal around its three main sensors to withstand the harsh conditions of the Martian environment.

“InSight's investigation of the Red Planet's interior is designed to increase understanding of how all rocky planets, including Earth, formed and evolved,” said Bruce Banerdt, InSight Principal Investigator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California. “Mars retains evidence about the rocky planets' early development that has been erased on Earth by internal churning Mars lacks. Gaining information about the core, mantle and crust of Mars is a high priority for planetary science, and InSight was built to accomplish this."

A leak earlier this year that previously had prevented the seismometer from retaining vacuum conditions was repaired, and the mission team was hopeful the most recent fix also would be successful. However, during testing on Monday in extreme cold temperature (-49 degrees Fahrenheit/-45 degrees Celsius) the instrument again failed to hold a vacuum.

NASA officials determined there is insufficient time to resolve another leak, and complete the work and thorough testing required to ensure a successful mission.

“It’s the first time ever that such a sensitive instrument has been built. We were very close to succeeding, but an anomaly has occurred, which requires further investigation. Our teams will find a solution to fix it, but it won’t be solved in time for a launch in 2016,” said Marc Pircher, Director of CNES’s Toulouse Space Centre.

The spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin, was delivered to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, on Dec. 16. With the 2016 launch canceled, the spacecraft will be returned from Vandenberg to Lockheed’s facility in Denver.

The relative positions of the planets are most favorable for launching missions from Earth to Mars for only a few weeks every 26 months. For InSight, that 2016 launch window existed from March 4 to March 30.

“In 2008, we made a difficult, but correct decision to postpone the launch of the Mars Science Laboratory mission for two years to better ensure mission success,” said Jim Green, director, Planetary Science Division, in Washington. “The successes of that mission's rover, Curiosity, have vastly outweighed any disappointment about that delay."

NASA is on an ambitious journey to Mars that includes sending humans to the Red Planet, and that work remains on track despite Tuesday’s decision. Robotic spacecraft are leading the way for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, with the upcoming Mars 2020 rover being designed and built, the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers exploring the Martian surface, the Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft currently orbiting the planet, along with the MAVEN orbiter, which recently helped scientists understand what happened to the Martian atmosphere.

NASA and CNES also are participating in the European Space Agency's (ESA’s) Mars Express mission currently operating at Mars and plans to participate on ESA’s 2016 and 2018 ExoMars missions, including providing telecommunication radios for ESA's 2016 orbiter and a critical element of a key astrobiology instrument on the 2018 ExoMars rover.

“The JPL and CNES teams and their partners have made a heroic effort to prepare the InSight instrument, but have run out of time given the celestial mechanics of a launch to Mars,” said JPL Director Charles Elachi. “It is more important to do it right than take an unacceptable risk.”

InSight’s science payload includes two key instruments: SEIS, provided by CNES, and the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3), provided by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

SEIS was built with the participation of the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), with support from the Swiss Space Office and the European Space Agency PRODEX program; the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), supported by DLR; Imperial College, supported by the United Kingdom Space Agency; and JPL.

Source: NASA.Gov

InSight Update: One Step Closer to the Red Planet...

NASA

Mars Spacecraft Shipped to California for March Launch (Press Release)

NASA's next Mars spacecraft has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, for final preparations before a launch scheduled in March 2016 and a landing on Mars six months later.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built and tested the spacecraft and delivered it on Dec. 16 from Buckley Air Force Base in Denver to Vandenberg, on the central California Coast.

Preparations are on a tight schedule for launch during the period March 4 through March 30. The work ahead includes installation and testing of one of the mission's key science instruments, its seismometer, which is scheduled for delivery to Vandenberg in January.

"InSight has traveled the first leg of its journey, getting from Colorado to California, and we're on track to start the next leg, to Mars, with a launch in March," said InSight Principal Investigator Bruce Banerdt, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

The seismometer, provided by France's national space agency (CNES), includes a vacuum container around its three main sensors. Maintaining the vacuum is necessary for the instrument's extremely high sensitivity; the seismometer is capable of measuring ground motions as small as the width of an atom. A vacuum leak detected during testing of the seismometer was repaired last week in France and is undergoing further testing.

InSight's heat-probe instrument from Germany's space agency (DLR), the lander's robotic arm and the rest of the payload are already installed on the spacecraft.

InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport, is the first Mars mission dedicated to studying the deep interior of the Red Planet. This Mars lander's findings will advance understanding about the formation and evolution of all rocky planets, including Earth.

One of the newest additions installed on the InSight lander is a microchip bearing the names of about 827,000 people worldwide who participated in an online "send your name to Mars" activity in August and September 2015.

InSight will be the first mission to Mars ever launched from California. The mission is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA

Hayabusa2 Update: On-Track for Ryugu...

JAXA

Hayabusa 2 Earth Swing-by Result (Press Release)

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) confirmed that the Asteroid Explorer Hayabusa 2 is cruising on its target orbit after measuring and calculating the post-Earth-swing-by orbit.

The Hayabusa 2 performed the Earth swing-by on the night of December 3 (Thursday), 2015 (Japan Standard Time). The Hayabusa 2 flew closest to the Earth at 7:08 p.m. (JST) and passed over the Pacific Ocean near the Hawaiian islands at an altitude of about 3,090 km (1,920 miles). With the swing-by, the explorer’s orbit turned by about 80 degrees and its speed increased by about 1.6 km per second (1 mile per second) to about 31.9 km per second (20 miles per second against the Sun) thus the orbit achieved the target numbers.

According to the operation supported by the NASA Deep Space Network stations and European Space Agency deep space ground station, the Hayabusa 2 is in good health.

Message from Project Manager Yuichi Tsuda

I would like to express my deep gratitude to all pertinent parties and people and those who are supporting our operation. All the Hayabusa 2 project team members have been working together and will continue our challenging voyage. The Hayabusa 2 gained orbit energy through the swing-by to leave the Earth. The target is the asteroid “Ryugu”. “See you later, people on Earth!”

At 12:00 a.m. on Dec. 14, 2015, the Hayabusa 2 is flying at: about 4.15 million km (2.6 million miles) from the Earth, and about 144.85 million km (90 million miles) from the Sun.

Its cruising speed is 32.31 km per second (20 miles per second against the Sun).

The Hayabusa 2 is increasing its speed under the influence of the Sun’s gravity after the swing-by.

After the swing-by, the Hayabusa 2 took images of the Earth using its onboard Optical Navigation Camera - Telescopic (ONC-T). The ONC-T can shoot color images using seven filters.

The image above is composed by using three of these filters. You can see the Australian continent and Antarctica in the image. The South Pole is not lit by the sun during the summer, and meteorological satellites also do not cover the Antarctic area to take its images, hence the shot this time is precious.

Source: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

Dawn Update: Ceres' Mysteries Begin to Unravel...

NASA / JPL - Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA

New Clues to Ceres' Bright Spots and Origins (Press Release - December 9)

Ceres reveals some of its well-kept secrets in two new studies in the journal Nature, thanks to data from NASA's Dawn spacecraft. They include highly anticipated insights about mysterious bright features found all over the dwarf planet's surface.

In one study, scientists identify this bright material as a kind of salt. The second study suggests the detection of ammonia-rich clays, raising questions about how Ceres formed.

About the Bright Spots

Ceres has more than 130 bright areas, and most of them are associated with impact craters. Study authors, led by Andreas Nathues at Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Göttingen, Germany, write that the bright material is consistent with a type of magnesium sulfate called hexahydrite. A different type of magnesium sulfate is familiar on Earth as Epsom salt.

Nathues and colleagues, using images from Dawn's framing camera, suggest that these salt-rich areas were left behind when water-ice sublimated in the past. Impacts from asteroids would have unearthed the mixture of ice and salt, they say.

"The global nature of Ceres' bright spots suggests that this world has a subsurface layer that contains briny water-ice," Nathues said.

A New Look at Occator

The surface of Ceres, whose average diameter is 584 miles (940 kilometers), is generally dark -- similar in brightness to fresh asphalt -- study authors wrote. The bright patches that pepper the surface represent a large range of brightness, with the brightest areas reflecting about 50 percent of sunlight shining on the area. But there has not been unambiguous detection of water ice on Ceres; higher-resolution data are needed to settle this question.

The inner portion of a crater called Occator contains the brightest material on Ceres. Occator itself is 60 miles (90 kilometers) in diameter, and its central pit, covered by this bright material, measures about 6 miles (10 kilometers) wide and 0.3 miles (0.5 kilometers) deep. Dark streaks, possibly fractures, traverse the pit. Remnants of a central peak, which was up to 0.3 miles (0.5 kilometers) high, can also be seen.

With its sharp rim and walls, and abundant terraces and landslide deposits, Occator appears to be among the youngest features on Ceres. Dawn mission scientists estimate its age to be about 78 million years old.

Study authors write that some views of Occator appear to show a diffuse haze near the surface that fills the floor of the crater. This may be associated with observations of water vapor at Ceres by the Herschel space observatory that were reported in 2014. The haze seems to be present in views during noon, local time, and absent at dawn and dusk, study authors write. This suggests that the phenomenon resembles the activity at the surface of a comet, with water vapor lifting tiny particles of dust and residual ice. Future data and analysis may test this hypothesis and reveal clues about the process causing this activity.

"The Dawn science team is still discussing these results and analyzing data to better understand what is happening at Occator," said Chris Russell, principal investigator of the Dawn mission, based at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The Importance of Ammonia

In the second Nature study, members of the Dawn science team examined the composition of Ceres and found evidence for ammonia-rich clays. They used data from the visible and infrared mapping spectrometer, a device that looks at how various wavelengths of light are reflected by the surface, allowing minerals to be identified.

Ammonia ice by itself would evaporate on Ceres today, because the dwarf planet is too warm. However, ammonia molecules could be stable if present in combination with (i.e. chemically bonded to) other minerals.

The presence of ammoniated compounds raises the possibility that Ceres did not originate in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, where it currently resides, but instead might have formed in the outer solar system. Another idea is that Ceres formed close to its present position, incorporating materials that drifted in from the outer solar system – near the orbit of Neptune, where nitrogen ices are thermally stable.

"The presence of ammonia-bearing species suggests that Ceres is composed of material accreted in an environment where ammonia and nitrogen were abundant. Consequently, we think that this material originated in the outer cold solar system,” said Maria Cristina De Sanctis, lead author of the study, based at the National Institute of Astrophysics, Rome.

In comparing the spectrum of reflected light from Ceres to meteorites, scientists found some similarities. Specifically, they focused on the spectra, or chemical fingerprints, of carbonaceous chondrites, a type of carbon-rich meteorite thought to be relevant analogues for the dwarf planet. But these are not good matches for all wavelengths that the instrument sampled, the team found. In particular, there were distinctive absorption bands, matching mixtures containing ammoniated minerals, associated with wavelengths that can't be observed from Earth-based telescopes.

The scientists note another difference is that these carbonaceous chondrites have bulk water contents of 15 to 20 percent, while Ceres' content is as much as 30 percent.

"Ceres may have retained more volatiles than these meteorites, or it could have accreted the water from volatile-rich material," De Sanctis said.

The study also shows that daytime surface temperatures on Ceres span from minus 136 degrees to minus 28 degrees Fahrenheit (180 to 240 Kelvin). The maximum temperatures were measured in the equatorial region. The temperatures at and near the equator are generally too high to support ice at the surface for a long time, study authors say, but data from Dawn's next orbit will reveal more details.

As of this week, Dawn has reached its final orbital altitude at Ceres, about 240 miles (385 kilometers) from the surface of the dwarf planet. In mid-December, Dawn will begin taking observations from this orbit, including images at a resolution of 120 feet (35 meters) per pixel, infrared, gamma ray and neutron spectra, and high-resolution gravity data.

Dawn's mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Italian Space Agency and Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team.

Source: NASA.Gov

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It's Official: Akatsuki Is Safely Orbiting Venus!

JAXA

Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki Inserted Into Venus' Orbit‏ (Press Release)

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully inserted the Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki into the orbit circling around Venus.

As a result of measuring and calculating the Akatsuki’s orbit after its thrust ejection, the orbiter is now flying on the elliptical orbit at the apoapsis altitude of about 400 km (249 miles) and periapsis altitude of about 440,000 km (273,462 miles) from Venus. The orbit period is 13 days and 14 hours. We also found that the orbiter is flying in the same direction as that of Venus’s rotation.

The Akatsuki is in good health.

We will deploy the three scientific mission instruments namely the 2μm camera (IR2), the Lightning and Airglow Camera (LAC) and the Ultra-Stable oscillator (USO) and check their functions. JAXA will then perform initial observations with the above three instruments along with the three other instruments whose function has already been confirmed, the Ultraviolet Imager (UVI), the Longwave IR camera (LIR), and the 1μm camera (IR1) for about three months. At the same time, JAXA will also gradually adjust the orbit for shifting its elliptical orbit to the period of about nine days. The regular operation is scheduled to start in April, 2016.

Orbit calculation result (as of Dec. 9):

Periapsis altitude: About 400 km (249 miles)

Apoasis altitude: About 440,000 km (273,462 miles)

Inclination: About 3 degrees against Venus’ revolution plane

Period: About 13 days and 14 hours

Source: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

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JAXA

Photos of the Day: Autograph Signings at The Grove in LA...

Today and yesterday, I drove down to The Grove near Beverly Hills to attend autograph signings (held in the Barnes & Noble bookstore there) by singer/actress Katharine McPhee and actress Leah Remini. McPhee (who was the Season 5 finalist of American Idol in 2006 and now appears in the CBS TV series Scorpion) promoted her new CD album Hysteria last night, while Remini (who was in the long-running CBS sitcom King of Queens and such films as the 2003 Will Ferrell comedy Old School) did signings for her new book Troublemaker a few hours ago. Personally speaking, my favorite pic from the last two days is the one that I took with Remini...even though I only said 'hi' to her when I finally walked up to her table. McPhee struck a brief conversation with me (she asked me where I was from; we're both born and raised in Los Angeles), but the fact that she's three inches taller than me (plus she had high heels on) kinda made me wish that she was sitting down when the photo below was taken. Oh well. All that matters is that I had the opportunity to meet these two awesome ladies in person and that I wish them the best of luck in future endeavors. Carry on!

(It Took 5 Extra Years, But...) Welcome To Venus, Akatsuki!

Go Miyazaki

Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki: Result of Attitude Control Engine Thrust Operation for Venus Orbit Insertion (Press Release)

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) performed the attitude control engine thrust operation of the Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki for its Venus orbit insertion from 8:51 a.m. on December 7 (Japan Standard Time).

As a result of analyzing data transmitted from the orbiter, we confirmed that the thrust emission of the attitude control engine was conducted for about 20 minutes as scheduled.

The orbiter is now in good health. We are currently measuring and calculating its orbit after the operation. It will take a few days to estimate the orbit, thus we will announce the operation result once it is determined.

Source: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

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Real-time simulation courtesy of Lizard-Tail.com

New Horizons Update: An Awesome New Hi-Res Pic of Pluto...

NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI

The Mountainous Shoreline of Sputnik Planum (Press Release)

In this highest-resolution image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, great blocks of Pluto’s water-ice crust appear jammed together in the informally named al-Idrisi mountains. Some mountain sides appear coated in dark material, while other sides are bright. Several sheer faces appear to show crustal layering, perhaps related to the layers seen in some of Pluto’s crater walls. Other materials appear crushed between the mountains, as if these great blocks of water ice, some standing as much as 1.5 miles high, were jostled back and forth. The mountains end abruptly at the shoreline of the informally named Sputnik Planum, where the soft, nitrogen-rich ices of the plain form a nearly level surface, broken only by the fine trace work of striking, cellular boundaries and the textured surface of the plain’s ices (which is possibly related to sunlight-driven ice sublimation). This view is about 50 miles wide. The top of the image is to Pluto’s northwest.

Source: NASA.Gov

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Hayabusa2 Flies Past Earth on Its Way to Asteroid Ryugu...

JAXA

Hayabusa 2 Earth Swing-by (Press Release)

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) performed an Earth swing-by operation of the Asteroid Explorer Hayabusa 2 on the night of December 3 (Thursday), 2015 (Japan Standard Time). The Hayabusa 2 flew closest to the Earth at 7:08 p.m. (JST) and passed over the Pacific Ocean around the Hawaiian islands at an altitude of about 3,090 kilometers (1,920 miles).

After its closest flight to the Earth, we have confirmed the good health of the Hayabusa 2 through operations supported by the NASA Deep Space Network stations.

The Hayabusa 2 project team is currently measuring and calculating the post-swing-by orbit. It will take about a week to confirm if the explorer entered the target orbit. We will report the result once it is determined.

Source: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

Photos of the Day: Atari or Sega Genesis for the Price of $50...

A few weeks ago, I paid a visit to my local Walgreens store when I saw that it was selling vintage Atari and Sega Genesis game consoles...each for the really low price of $50! As if that wasn't cool enough, the Sega Genesis came with the game Sonic the Hedgehog, which I totally wanted to play when I was in 6th grade (that would be in 1991-'92). As it stands, I instead played Super Mario World, F-Zero, Star Fox and other awesome titles when my family had a Super Nintendo Entertainment System while I was in grade school. Yea— Back in the day... Would I play those games if I still had them today, you ask? Definitely! As it stands, I'll just live out my youth by playing the Star Wars: X-Wing game (which I originally played during my sophomore year in high school between 1995-'96) that I bought for my PC about a year ago. That is all.