Space news and Exploration II

[ScienceRocks]

http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/manga...-longer-749045

India's maiden mission to Mars, Mangalyaan, has successfully completed six months in the Red Planet's orbit - the nominal period for which it was originally designed. The satellite could, however, last a long time in the Martian orbit, thanks to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)'s frugal ways.

 

[ScienceRocks]

NASA rover Opportunity completes marathon milestone on Mars
2 minutes ago

NASA says the Opportunity rover has passed the marathon mark for driving on Mars.

The space agency said Tuesday the rover's odometer checked in at 26.2 miles—the distance of a marathon.

The official time? Eleven years and two months.

Scientists and engineers will celebrate Opportunity's achievement by holding their own marathon relay at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission.

Last year, Opportunity broke the record for off-Earth distance traveled that was previously held by the Soviet Union's Lunokhod 2 moon rover.

Opportunity and its twin Spirit landed on Mars in January 2004 for what was supposed to be a three-month mission. Both uncovered geologic signs of ancient water.

Read more at: NASA rover Opportunity completes marathon milestone on Mars

What can I say? We got our monies worth!!!

 

[ScienceRocks]

Search for extraterrestrial intelligence extends to near-infrared optical signals
New instrument will scan the sky for coded pulses of infrared light
March 23, 2015

Lick Observatory, home of NIROSETI (credit: Laurie Hatch)

Astronomers have expanded the search for extraterrestrial intelligence into a new realm with detectors tuned to infrared light.

The idea was first proposed by Charles Townes, the late UC Berkeley scientist whose contributions to the development of lasers led to a Nobel Prize, in a paper [1] published in 1961.

Pulses from a powerful near-infrared laser could outshine a star, if only for a billionth of a second. Interstellar gas and dust is almost transparent to near-infrared, so these signals can be seen from greater distances. It also takes less energy to send the same amount of information using infrared signals than it would with visible light.

Search for extraterrestrial intelligence extends to near-infrared optical signals KurzweilAI

NASA's Curiosity rover finds fresh signs of ingredients for life on Mars
14 hours ago by Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times

Mars's life-friendly past just got friendlier. Using samples previously collected by the NASA rover Curiosity, scientists have discovered evidence of nitrates in Martian rock: nitrogen compounds that on Earth are a crucial source of nutrients for living things.

The findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, lend further support to the idea that the Red Planet, now barren and dry, could once have hosted habitable environments.

Although planetary scientists have been on the hunt for organic carbon - the type of carbon-containing molecules that could be used and produced by living things - nitrogen also plays an essential role in life as we know it, said lead author Jennifer Stern, a planetary geochemist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Read more at: NASA s Curiosity rover finds fresh signs of ingredients for life on Mars

 

[ScienceRocks]

https://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcre...test-profile//

SpaceX Engine Test Demonstrates Pad Abort Test Profile

SpaceX ignited two of its SuperDraco engines together at the company’s Rocket Development Facility in McGregor, Texas, during a recent test of the reusable system. The firing was a demonstration of a pad abort test profile, with two SuperDraco engines igniting simultaneously and throttling as they will during an upcoming flight test at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The SuperDraco system is integral to the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft under development to carry crew to the International Space Station. Four SuperDraco pods, with two engines in each for a total of eight engines, are to be arranged on the Crew Dragon. During launch and ascent into space, the thrusters would be called on to push the spacecraft and crew out of danger in case of an abort.

The pad abort test will be performed under the company’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) agreement with NASA. However, SpaceX will use the data gathered during the development flight as it continues on the path to certification. Under a separate Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program will certify SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, Falcon 9 rocket, ground and mission operations systems to fly crews to and from the space station.

VINE video
Watch SpaceX s Vine Demo of pad abort test profile in TX 2 SuperDraco engines ignite simultaneously throttle as they would during the Pad Abort flight test ,


Supermassive black hole clears star-making gas from galaxy's core
39 minutes ago

A red-filter image of IRAS F11119+3257 (inset) from the University of Hawaii's 2.2-meter telescope shows faint features that may be tidal debris, a sign of a galaxy merger. The background is a wider view of the region from the Sloan Digital …more

Many nearby galaxies blast huge, wide-angled outpourings of material from their center, ejecting enough gas and dust to build more than a thousand stars the size of our sun every year. Astronomers have sought the driving force behind these massive molecular outflows, and now a team led by University of Maryland scientists has found an answer.

Read more at: Supermassive black hole clears star-making gas from galaxy s core

 

[HenryBHough]

If it were proven with absolute certainty that Earth will be destroyed by some rogue asteroid, maybe a comet, in 10,000 years....

An ab-so-fucking-loute certainty.

Would you change your way of living?

If so, how?

 

[ScienceRocks]

If it were proven with absolute certainty that Earth will be destroyed by some rogue asteroid, maybe a comet, in 10,000 years....

An ab-so-fucking-loute certainty.

Would you change your way of living?

If so, how?

I think I'd give some more of my income to nasa and space-x. We'd need to find a favorable extrasolar planet so we can start building the "fusion" or anti-matter generation ship in order to save our species.

 

[ScienceRocks]

1503.07528 Hubble Space Telescope search for the transit of the Earth-mass exoplanet Alpha Centauri Bb

Hubble Space Telescope search for the transit of the Earth-mass exoplanet Alpha Centauri Bb

Results from exoplanet surveys indicate that small planets (super-Earth size and below) are abundant in our Galaxy. However, little is known about their interiors and atmospheres. There is therefore a need to find small planets transiting bright stars, which would enable a detailed characterisation of this population of objects. We present the results of a search for the transit of the Earth-mass exoplanet Alpha Centauri Bb with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We observed Alpha Centauri B twice in 2013 and 2014 for a total of 40 hours. We achieve a precision of 115 ppm per 6-s exposure time in a highly-saturated regime, which is found to be consistent across HST orbits. We rule out the transiting nature of Alpha Centauri Bb with the orbital parameters published in the literature at 96.6% confidence. We find in our data a single transit-like event that could be associated to another Earth-size planet in the system, on a longer period orbit

Promising that there's a good chance of another earth like planet further out....

 

[ScienceRocks]

Five New Exoplanets Orbiting Three Metal-Rich, Massive Stars: Two-Planet Systems Including Long-Period Planets, and an Eccentric Planet
1503.07636 Five New Exoplanets Orbiting Three Metal-Rich Massive Stars Two-Planet Systems Including Long-Period Planets and an Eccentric Planet

We report detections of new exoplanets from a radial velocity (RV) survey of metal-rich FGK stars by using three telescopes. By optimizing our RV analysis method to long time-baseline observations, we have succeeded in detecting five new Jovian-planets around three metal-rich stars HD 1605, HD 1666, and HD 67087 with the masses of 1.3M⊙, 1.5M⊙, and 1.4M⊙, respectively. A K1 subgiant star HD 1605 hosts two planetary companions with the minimum masses of Mpsini=0.96MJUP and 3.5MJUP in circular orbits with the planets' periods P=577.9 days and 2111 days, respectively. HD 1605 shows a significant linear trend in RVs. Such a system consisting of Jovian planets in circular orbits has rarely been found and thus HD 1605 should be an important example of a multi-planetary system that is likely unperturbed by planet-planet interactions. HD 1666 is a F7 main sequence star which hosts an eccentric and massive planet of Mpsini=6.4MJUP in the orbit with ap=0.94 AU and an eccentricity e=0.63. Such an eccentric and massive planet can be explained as a result of planet-planet interactions among Jovian planets. While we have found the large residuals of rms=35.6 m s−1, the periodogram analysis does not support any additional periodicities. Finally, HD 67087 hosts two planets of Mpsini=3.1MJUP and 4.9MJUP in orbits with P=352.2 days and 2374 days, and e=0.17 and 0.76, respectively. Although the current RVs do not lead to accurate determinations of its orbit and mass, HD 67087 c can be one of the most eccentric planets ever discovered in multiple systems.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Researchers stumble across Earth's largest asteroid impact zone
By Darren Quick
March 26, 2015
4 Pictures

Geophysicists conducting drilling as part of geothermal research claim to have stumbled across the largest asteroid impact zone ever found on Earth. Covering a 400 km (249 mi) wide area in Central Australia, the two ancient craters are believed to be the result of a single meteorite that split in two moments before crashing into the Earth.

 

[ScienceRocks]

India's frugal Mars mission extended by six months
Mar 24, 2015

India's famously frugal Mars mission has been extended by around six months thanks to a surplus of fuel on board the spacecraft, the country's space agency said Tuesday.

The Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft had been scheduled to wrap up its mission this month after India in September became the first Asian nation to reach the Red Planet, all on a shoe-string budget.

But scientists said the unmanned spacecraft would remain in orbit to study the planet's atmosphere and its surface after burning less fuel than expected over the last six months.

Read more at: India s frugal Mars mission extended by six months

 

[bripat9643]

If it were proven with absolute certainty that Earth will be destroyed by some rogue asteroid, maybe a comet, in 10,000 years....

An ab-so-fucking-loute certainty.

Would you change your way of living?

If so, how?

No. In 10,000 years we can easily divert an asteroid on a trajectory to impact the Earth. We can probably do it now.

 

[ScienceRocks]

If it were proven with absolute certainty that Earth will be destroyed by some rogue asteroid, maybe a comet, in 10,000 years....

An ab-so-fucking-loute certainty.

Would you change your way of living?

If so, how?

No. In 10,000 years we can easily divert an asteroid on a trajectory to impact the Earth. We can probably do it now.

I don't really understand why asteroid defense isn't a defense issue. We should have the ability to defend ourselfs at a moments notice from these things. Time for congress to wake up.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Liftoff! US, Russia Launch Historic One-Year Space Mission
Liftoff US Russia Launch Historic One-Year Space Mission

An American astronaut and Russian cosmonaut launched into space Friday to attempt something their two countries have never done together before: a one-year mission on the International Space Station that could help one day send humans to Mars.

The epic one-year space mission launched NASA's Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko into orbit aboard a Russian Soyuz space capsule at 3:42 p.m. EDT (1942 GMT) today (March 27) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where it was early Saturday morning local time. Also flying on the Soyuz is cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, a crewmember who will live and work aboard the orbiting outpost for about six months, the usual length of time people spend on the station.

 

[ScienceRocks]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/vi..._134095733.htm

"This is the last test of Long March-5's power system before its maiden flight. It means China's utilization of hydrogen has entered the application process," Li Hong, dean of China Academy Of Launch Vehicle Technology, said.

The rocket's first flight is scheduled for April next year. And there's no stopping there, as scientists continue to design carrier rockets with ever higher payload capacities.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Russia & US agree to build new space station after ISS, work on joint Mars project

Published time: March 28, 2015 03:01

In a landmark decision, Russian space agency Roscosmos and its US counterpart NASA have agreed to build a new space station after the current International Space Station (ISS) expires. The operation of the ISS was prolonged until 2024.

[...]

The next goal for the two agencies is a joint mission to Mars, NASA chief Charles Bolden told journalists.

Russia US agree to build new space station after ISS work on joint Mars project RT News

I hope they build it out of the bigelow inflatable tech that is being tested. Not only would it be cheaper but much bigger.

Bigelow Commercial Space Station - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

 

[Vikrant]

India places the 4th satellite in orbit to continue work on Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. This is a space based navigation system similar to U.S. GPS system. Now, all they have to do is build some roads

India has continued deployment of its IRNSS navigation system Saturday, with the launch of the fourth satellite atop a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. Launched on schedule at 17:19 local time (11:49 UTC), the IRNSS-1D mission marks India’s first orbital launch of the year.


Indian Launch:

The IRNSS-1D satellite will join three others already in orbit, the fourth in a planned seven-satellite constellation which will provide India and its surrounding region with an independent satellite navigation system.

Operating in geosynchronous orbit, the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) has been under development by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) since 2006, with the first satellite reaching orbit in mid-2013.

The IRNSS constellation calls for three geostationary satellites and four more in inclined geosynchronous orbits. The geostationary slots, located at 34, 83 and 132 degrees East will each be occupied by a single satellite, while the two inclined stations, at 55 and 111.75 degrees East will each be home to a pair of spacecraft.

PSLV launches with IRNSS-1D to open India s 2015 campaign NASASpaceFlight.com

 

[ScienceRocks]

india is building a crap load of roads as they care about infrastructure. India is doing great!

How would you feel about using a gravity tractor to pull Ceres into orbit around our planet as another moon? It'd probably become a ocean moon. Sounds exciting!

 

[ScienceRocks]

My idea of asteroid direct would be using gravity tractors to put Ceres into Orbit around the earth. It would become a water moon. Now that would be impressive.

 

[ScienceRocks]

New insights found in black hole collisions

New research provides revelations about the most energetic event in the universe—the merging of two spinning, orbiting black holes into a much larger black hole.

An international team of astronomers, including from the University of Cambridge, have found solutions to decades-old equations describing what happens as two spinning black holes in a binary system orbit each other and spiral in toward a collision.

The results, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, should significantly impact not only the study of black holes, but also the search for elusive gravitational waves – a type of radiation predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity – in the cosmos.

 

[ScienceRocks]

WASP-80b has a dayside within the T-dwarf range

WASP-80b is a missing link in the study of exo-atmospheres. It falls between the warm Neptunes and the hot Jupiters and is amenable for characterisation, thanks to its host star's properties. We observed the planet through transit and during occultation with Warm Spitzer. Combining our mid-infrared transits with optical time series, we find that the planet presents a transmission spectrum indistinguishable from a horizontal line. In emission, WASP-80b is the intrinsically faintest planet whose dayside flux has been detected in both the 3.6 and 4.5 μm Spitzer channels. The depths of the occultations reveal that WASP-80b is as bright and as red as a T4 dwarf, but that its temperature is cooler. If planets go through the equivalent of an L-T transition, our results would imply this happens at cooler temperatures than for brown dwarfs. Placing WASP-80b's dayside into a colour-magnitude diagram, it falls exactly at the junction between a blackbody model and the T-dwarf sequence; we cannot discern which of those two interpretations is the more likely. Flux measurements on other planets with similar equilibrium temperatures are required to establish whether irradiated gas giants, like brown dwarfs, transition between two spectral classes. An eventual detection of methane absorption in transmission would also help lift that degeneracy.
We obtained a second series of high-resolution spectra during transit, using HARPS. We reanalyse the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. The data now favour an aligned orbital solution and a stellar rotation nearly three times slower than stellar line broadening implies. A contribution to stellar line broadening, maybe macroturbulence, is likely to have been underestimated for cool stars, whose rotations have therefore been systematically overestimated.