Space news and Exploration II

[ScienceRocks]

NASA developing robotic helicopter scout for Mars rovers
By David Szondy
January 26, 2015
4 Pictures

The next big discovery is always beyond the next hill, but what if you can't see over it? That's the problem facing NASA with its Mars rovers, so the space agency is looking into how robotic helicopters could help scout the land ahead and give engineers back on Earth data to help plot the best route.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Dawn spacecraft captures best-ever view of dwarf planet
2 hours ago

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has returned the sharpest images ever seen of the dwarf planet Ceres. The images were taken 147,000 miles (237,000 kilometers) from Ceres on Jan. 25, and represent a new milestone for a spacecraft that soon will become the first human-made probe to visit a dwarf planet.
"We know so little about our vast solar system, but thanks to economical missions like Dawn, those mysteries are being solved," said Jim Green, Planetary Science Division Director at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

At 43 pixels wide, the new images are more than 30 percent higher in resolution than those taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in 2003 and 2004 at a distance of over 150 million miles (about 241 million kilometers). The resolution is higher because Dawn is traveling through the solar system to Ceres, while Hubble remains fixed in Earth orbit. The new Dawn images come on the heels of initial navigation images taken Jan. 13 that reveal a white spot on the dwarf planet and the suggestion of craters. Hubble images also had glimpsed a white spot on the dwarf planet, but its nature is still unknown.

"Ceres is a 'planet' that you've probably never heard of," said Robert Mase, Dawn project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "We're excited to learn all about it with Dawn and share our discoveries with the world."

Read more at: Dawn spacecraft captures best-ever view of dwarf planet

Read more at: Dawn spacecraft captures best-ever view of dwarf planet

 

[ScienceRocks]

What space x wants to do with the falcon heavy!

Fucking cool!

 

[ScienceRocks]

Spacex and Boeing should fly manned crews to the space station starting in 2017

American spacecraft systems testing followed by increasingly complex flight tests and ultimately astronauts flying orbital flights will pave the way to operational missions during the next few years to the International Space Station. Those were the plans laid out Monday by NASA's Commercial Crew Program officials and partners as they focus on developing safe, reliable and cost-effective spacecraft and systems that will take astronauts to the station from American launch complexes.

According to Boeing, the company’s schedule calls for a pad abort test in February 2017, followed by an uncrewed flight test in April 2017, then a flight with a Boeing test pilot and a NASA astronaut in July 2017.

 

[Votto]

The first one was getting long so I made a second one I hope you all enjoy.

Link back to the first one
Space exploration thread US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum


Star next door may host a 'superhabitable' world
15:58 31 January 2014 by Jeff Hecht
For similar stories, visit the Astrobiology Topic Guide

Star next door may host a 'superhabitable' world - space - 31 January 2014 - New Scientist

Earth may be our home, but another planet even cosier for life could be orbiting the star next door. A detailed analysis of what might make planets suitable for life says that Alpha Centauri B, the star closest to our sun, would be the perfect star to host a "superhabitable" planet – a world of islands, shallow seas and gentle slopes, where the conditions needed to support a diverse array of life forms would persist for up to 10 billion years. But the near-paradise would come at a cost to visitors from Earth: the pull of gravity would be about one-quarter stronger than on our home turf.

Oh goodie, another world for collectivists to ruin.

 

[ScienceRocks]

The first one was getting long so I made a second one I hope you all enjoy.

Link back to the first one
Space exploration thread US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum


Star next door may host a 'superhabitable' world
15:58 31 January 2014 by Jeff Hecht
For similar stories, visit the Astrobiology Topic Guide

Star next door may host a 'superhabitable' world - space - 31 January 2014 - New Scientist

Earth may be our home, but another planet even cosier for life could be orbiting the star next door. A detailed analysis of what might make planets suitable for life says that Alpha Centauri B, the star closest to our sun, would be the perfect star to host a "superhabitable" planet – a world of islands, shallow seas and gentle slopes, where the conditions needed to support a diverse array of life forms would persist for up to 10 billion years. But the near-paradise would come at a cost to visitors from Earth: the pull of gravity would be about one-quarter stronger than on our home turf.

Oh goodie, another world for collectivists to ruin.

Don't whine about the economy because your ideas would destroy it.

 

[Votto]

The first one was getting long so I made a second one I hope you all enjoy.

Link back to the first one
Space exploration thread US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum


Star next door may host a 'superhabitable' world
15:58 31 January 2014 by Jeff Hecht
For similar stories, visit the Astrobiology Topic Guide

Star next door may host a 'superhabitable' world - space - 31 January 2014 - New Scientist

Earth may be our home, but another planet even cosier for life could be orbiting the star next door. A detailed analysis of what might make planets suitable for life says that Alpha Centauri B, the star closest to our sun, would be the perfect star to host a "superhabitable" planet – a world of islands, shallow seas and gentle slopes, where the conditions needed to support a diverse array of life forms would persist for up to 10 billion years. But the near-paradise would come at a cost to visitors from Earth: the pull of gravity would be about one-quarter stronger than on our home turf.

Oh goodie, another world for collectivists to ruin.

Don't whine about the economy because your ideas would destroy it.

Far be it from me. I think that is why Obama wants to dedicate NASA to Islam. That way he can populate the universe with people who have the best ideas.

Of course, there has not been much interest of late. Perhaps Obama should move the Jews to Mars, that should generate some interest.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Roscosmos video replaces our Sun and Moon with well known stars and planets
By Anthony Wood
January 28, 2015

At some point in their lives, who hasn't looked up at the sky and gazed in wonder at Earth's closest companion? Hanging a dizzying 384,400 km (238, 606 miles) above us, the Moon has stood like a silent sentinel throughout our species' short existence. It has enticed some to visit and inspired others to look to the universe beyond. The Russian space agency Roscosmos recently released series of videos shot from the perspective of Earth, showing us what it would look like if other planets and stars took the place of our Moon and Sun.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Some potentially habitable planets began as gaseous, Neptune-like worlds
5 hours ago by Peter Kelley

Strong irradiation from the host star can cause planets known as mini-Neptunes in the habitable zone to shed their gaseous envelopes and become potentially habitable worlds. Credit: Rodrigo Luger / NASA images

Two phenomena known to inhibit the potential habitability of planets—tidal forces and vigorous stellar activity—might instead help chances for life on certain planets orbiting low-mass stars, University of Washington astronomers have found.

n a paper published this month in the journal Astrobiology, UW doctoral student Rodrigo Luger and co-author Rory Barnes, research assistant professor, say the two forces could combine to transform uninhabitable "mini-Neptunes"—big planets in outer orbits with solid cores and thick hydrogen atmospheres—into closer-in, gas-free, potentially habitable worlds.

Most of the stars in our galaxy are low-mass stars, also called M dwarfs. Smaller and dimmer than the sun, with close-in habitable zones, they make good targets for finding and studying potentially habitable planets. Astronomers expect to find many Earthlike and "super-Earth" planets in the habitable zones of these stars in coming years, so it's important to know if they might indeed support life.

Read more at: Some potentially habitable planets began as gaseous Neptune-like worlds

 

[ScienceRocks]

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics authors titles new.EP

Planetary Candidates Observed by \ik V: Planet Sample from Q1-Q12 (36 Months)
The Kepler mission discovered 2842 exoplanet candidates with 2 years of data. We provide updates to the Kepler planet candidate sample based upon 3 years (Q1-Q12) of data. Through a series of tests to exclude false-positives, primarily caused by eclipsing binary stars and instrumental systematics, 855 additional planetary candidates have been discovered, bringing the total number known to 3697. We provide revised transit parameters and accompanying posterior distributions based on a Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm for the cumulative catalogue of Kepler Objects of Interest. There are now 130 candidates in the cumulative catalogue that receive less than twice the flux the Earth receives and more than 1100 have a radius less than 1.5 Rearth. There are now a dozen candidates meeting both criteria, roughly doubling the number of candidate Earth analogs. (…)

From "Validation of 12 small Kepler planets in HZ" :
KOI 3255 is K-437b
KOI 3284 is K-438b
KOI 4087 is K-440b
but sizes are different...

 

[ScienceRocks]

NASA's Next Space Race: SpaceX vs. Boeing

Two American spaceflight companies are quietly competing in a space race for the new era.

SpaceX and Boeing are vying to become the first private firms to fly astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA sometime in 2017. NASA chose both companies as part of the agency's commercial crew program, which may effectively end NASA's current sole reliance on Russian vehicles to get astronauts to and from the orbiting outpost.

 

[ScienceRocks]

New Analysis Results
First Look at Kepler s Complete Primary Mission Data Set Drew Ex Machina

With the end of Kepler’s primary mission on May 11, 2013 when a second reaction wheel failure left the spacecraft unable to accurately point at its predetermined patch of the celestial sphere, a total of 17 quarters of data were available for analysis by the Kepler project’s data processing pipeline. A team led by Shawn Seader (SETI Institute/NASA Ames Research Center) has now submitted for publication the first results of an initial analysis of the entire data set from Kepler’s primary mission.

Seader et al. used the latest version of the Transiting Planet Search (TPS) pipeline module to search the photometric data of 198,675 Kepler targets. Of these targets, 112,001 were observed in every quarter with 86,645 targets observed in a subset of the 17 quarters. They found a total of 12,669 targets that contained at least one signal that meets the following criteria for being a transit event:

- The transit events occurred at regular intervals
- A minimum of three transit events are observed
- The signal-to-noise ratio of the events is greater than a preset threshold
- The transit events pass four consistency tests designed to weed out false positives

Seader et al. repeatedly searched targets that contained at least one sequence of transit-like events looking for other signals that met these criteria indicating possible multiple planet systems. This search added an additional 7,698 transit-like signals for a total of 20,367 – nearly four times the current official tally of confirmed planets and planet candidates. The team compared these prospective finds against the set of currently known and vetted planets discovered in the Kepler data and were able to recover 90.3% of them. The difference is believed to be the result of changes made to the TPS algorithm over the years to make it more conservative and less prone to false positives.



Looking at just the subset of the best 1,752 “golden KOIs” (Kepler Objects of Interest) which represent the most secure planet detections to date, Seader et al. were able to recover 99.1% during their processing of 17 quarters of data using the latest version of TPS. The team believes that further refinements to the TPS algorithm should improve the recovery rate while continuing to suppress false positives. With these improvements and factoring in that only about 10% of such detections prove to be false positives, it appears that Kepler’s eventual tally of planetary finds from its primary mission could reach on the order of at least 20,000 extrasolar planets!

Seader et al. go on to report some details of eight new transit event sequences that had never been reported previously. Based on an initial analysis, six of these appear to be nearly Earth-size planets that seem to be in or near the habitable zones (HZ) of their sun. The other two candidates are of interest because they are smaller than the Earth. The properties of these eight planet candidates calculated using the data in Kepler’s current target data base are listed below in Table 1. The data are taken directly from Seader et al. except for the effective stellar flux value, Seff, which I calculated using information from the paper and Kepler’s target data base.


While these results are very preliminary and will be subject to updates, two of these unconfirmed planets immediately caught my attention as orbiting Sun-like stars inside the conservative definition of the HZ by Kopparapu et al.. By this definition, the inner edge of the HZ is defined as the Seff where a runaway moist greenhouse effect sets in. The outer edge of the HZ is defined by the Seff of the maximum greenhouse effect limit beyond which a CO2-dominated greenhouse can no longer maintain surface temperatures above freezing.

KIC 8311864
The planet candidate found orbiting KIC 8311864 has an orbital period of 384.85 days. Based on the initial assessment of the properties of this star, this planet candidate would have a radius 1.19 times that of the Earth (or RE) and an Seff I estimate to be 0.56. Based on the work by Rogers, which indicates that planets transition from being predominantly rocky to non-rocky at a radius no greater than 1.6 RE, it seems likely that this candidate is a rocky planet like the Earth (see “Habitable Planet Reality Check: Terrestrial Planet Size Limit”). With an effective temperature of 5,587° K (hinting that the star is a G-type star slightly cooler than the Sun), the HZ for KIC 8311864 as defined by Kopparapu et al. corresponds to an Seff from 1.08 to 0.34 assuming an Earth-mass planet orbiting this star indicating that this planet candidate is comfortably inside the HZ.

Even though this initial assessment seems very promising, a more in depth analysis currently underway by a team led by Jon Jenkins (NASA Ames Research Center) indicates that the stellar properties that they have derived from spectroscopic analysis of KIC 8311864 differ significantly from those currently in the Kepler target data base. Their data, which will be the subject of a discovery paper currently being prepared, indicate that this star is actually ~50% larger than originally thought. As a result, the radius of the planet candidate will also be larger – on the order of 1.8 RE. With this larger radius estimate, this planet candidate now has about a one-in-three chance of being a rocky planet and is more likely to be a mini-Neptune instead. The update in stellar properties also implies that the Seff might be about double the earlier estimate placing this world near the inner edge of the HZ.

While we will have to wait until the paper by Jenkins et al. is released to get all of the details and perform a better habitability assessment, this world’s prospects for being potentially habitable are not as good as first believed but it is still worth additional consideration. The situation with this new find also illustrates the need for follow-up observations of host stars to refine important stellar parameters which in turn affect the derived properties of planetary finds.



KIC 9674320
The planet candidate found orbiting KIC 9674320 has an orbital period of 317.05 days. Assuming that the stellar parameters for KIC 9674320 in the Kepler target data base are accurate, this world has a radius of 1.66 RE and an Seff that I estimate to be 0.57. With an effective temperature of 5,370° K (hinting this star is a late G-type or maybe an early K-type star), the HZ for KIC 9674320 as defined by Kopparapu et al. has Seff values ranging from 1.06 to 0.33 for an Earth-mass planet. While the size of this planet makes it a bit more likely to be a mini-Neptune instead of a terrestrial planet, its Seff value seems to place it comfortably inside the HZ. As the episode with KIC 8322864 has shown us, however, detailed follow-up observations will be needed to pin down the properties of this planet candidate and its host star more accurately. But at this point, it seems to be a promising potentially habitable planet candidate orbiting a Sun-like star.

It's time to fund the tech in order to settle this question.

 

[ScienceRocks]

NASA successfully launches SMAP satellite
By Anthony Wood
January 31, 2015
4 Pictures

On its third attempt, NASA has successfully launched its Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket. The orbiter is designed to take high resolution moisture maps on a global scale, mapping the entire planet in the space of only two to three days. The maps will grant us an improved ability to forecast droughts, floods, and even aid agricultural workers in crop planning and rotation. Read More

 

[ScienceRocks]

Planetary Society's LightSail to make first test flight in May
By David Szondy
February 1, 2015
3 Pictures

Though we tend to think of private spaceflight as being in the SpaceX league, it also includes many smaller-scale efforts. For example, the non-profit Planetary Society has announced that its LightSail spacecraft will make its first test flight in May. The solar-propelled CubeSat will lift off as a piggyback cargo atop an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

 

[ScienceRocks]

SpaceX nears pad abort test for human-rated Dragon capsule

SpaceX is finishing up preparations for a major test of a rocket-powered abort system for the company’s new Dragon crew ferry spacecraft, targeting launch from Cape Canaveral in March after a pair of Falcon 9 missions in February.

The redesigned version of SpaceX’s cargo-carrying Dragon capsule should be ready for an uncrewed space mission by late 2016, said Gwynne Shotwell, the company’s president and chief operating officer. A piloted test flight will follow in early 2017, she said.

 

[ScienceRocks]

White House Seeks $18.5 Billion NASA Budget, with Deep Space in Mind
by Miriam Kramer, Space.com Staff Writer | February 02, 2015 04:20pm ET

The White House budget proposal for NASA in 2016 calls for a $500 million boost over the 2015 enacted budget and would keep NASA on its path to Mars, NASA chief Charles Bolden says.

The $18.5 billion budget request, presented by Bolden today (Feb. 2), includes funding for developing a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, and the agency's asteroid redirect mission (ARM). Officials think ARM could help pave the way for crewed missions to the Red Planet by the 2030s.

"NASA is firmly on a journey to Mars," Bolden said. "Make no mistake, this journey will help guide and define our generation."

White House Seeks 18.5 Billion NASA Budget with Deep Space in Mind

Good start! Should be at least 20 billion as it was under George W Bush.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Video: Testing technologies for Europe's Intermediate Experimental Vehicle
26 minutes ago
IXV, Europe's Intermediate Experimental Vehicle, will soon be launched by Vega into a suborbital path.


Read more at: Video Testing technologies for Europe s Intermediate Experimental Vehicle

 

[ScienceRocks]

It's Official: We're On the Way to Europa

We're on the way to Europa.
Without a doubt, the new commitment to Europa is the most exciting feature of the President's 2016 budget request for NASA, which was released earlier today. Also notable: a request of $18.5 billion overall for NASA, about $519 million more than it received in 2015 and higher than any request in four years. This increase, I argue, signifies a general acknowledgment that NASA is underfunded given its current mandate. It follows Congress' lead in increasing the budget last year, and proposes continued increases into the near future.
So overall: a good budget. A very good budget.

WAHOOOOOO!!!! Come on republicans pass it, pass it now!!!!

 

[ScienceRocks]

New Horizons returns new images of Pluto
44 minutes ago

(Phys.org)—Pluto discoverer Clyde Tombaugh could only dream of a spacecraft flying past the small planet he spotted on the edges of the solar system in 1930. Yet the newest views of Pluto from NASA's approaching New Horizons probe – released today, on the late American astronomer's birthday – hint at just how close that dream is to coming true.

Read more at: New Horizons returns new images of Pluto

"Pluto is finally becoming more than just a pinpoint of light," said Hal Weaver, New Horizons project scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. "LORRI has now resolved Pluto, and the dwarf planet will continue to grow larger and larger in the images as New Horizons spacecraft hurtles toward its targets. The new LORRI images also demonstrate that the camera's performance is unchanged since it was launched more than nine years ago."

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Scientists predict earth-like planets around most stars
1 hour ago

Goldilocks zone, where liquid water can exist. Credit: Aditya Chopra, ANU, adapted from NASA/JPL

Planetary scientists have calculated that there are hundreds of billions of Earth-like planets in our galaxy which might support life.
The new research, led by PhD student Tim Bovaird and Associate Professor Charley Lineweaver from The Australian National University (ANU), made the finding by applying a 200 year old idea to the thousands of exo-planets discovered by the Kepler space telescope.

They found the standard star has about two planets in the so-called goldilocks zone, the distance from the star where liquid water, crucial for life, can exist.

"The ingredients for life are plentiful, and we now know that habitable environments are plentiful," said Associate Professor Lineweaver, from the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics and the Research School of Earth Sciences.

"However, the universe is not teeming with aliens with human-like intelligence that can build radio telescopes and space ships. Otherwise we would have seen or heard from them.

Read more at: Scientists predict earth-like planets around most stars

I don't agree as some systems won't have earth sized planets in the right place. Maybe one out of every 5 stars. I'd think is far more likely.

 

[ScienceRocks]

January 2015 Update

Reaction Engines Ltd announces company growth and completion of first SABRE development milestone.

This year, the Reaction Engines team are expanding in staff and activities to complete the SABRE demonstrator programme, with delivery on track for 2019. The company has relocated to larger premises on Culham Science Centre; consolidated its two manufacturing subsidiaries to a single new location in Didcot; and is recruiting across the company, ready for the design, manufacture and testing of the full SABRE engine cycle. This growth phase has also included the purchase of new, bespoke equipment which will enable Reaction Engines to manufacture its proprietary SABRE pre- coolers in-house, at full scale.

The key development activities over the first year of this programme have centred on intakes and combustion systems. This activity includes the recently completed Preliminary Requirements Review development milestone, and has been 50% funded by Reaction Engines' private capital. Matching funding has been provided by the UK Space Agency, through the European Space Agency. With the UK Government's commitment of £60m and private capital secured towards the next steps in this development phase, the Reaction Engines team are positive that a full static demonstration of the SABRE engine is achievable before the end of the decade, marking the greatest advance in propulsion since the jet engine.

http://www.reactione...ss_release.html