The latest Space to Ground video reports on the latest news for the Int. Space Station, including this week’s ammonia leak scare that turned out to be a false alarm:
UK Beagle 2 Mars lander spotted on Mars by orbiter
News comes today from NASA and the UK space authorities that the Beagle 2 Mars Lander, which went silent during its landing attempt in 2003, has been seen from orbit. Below are the NASA and UK announcements and videos:
‘Lost’ 2003 Mars Lander Found by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
The Beagle 2 Mars Lander, built by the United Kingdom, has been thought lost on Mars since 2003, but has now been found in images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
A set of three observations with the orbiter’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera shows Beagle 2 partially deployed on the surface of the planet, ending the mystery of what happened to the mission more than a decade ago. They show that the lander survived its Dec. 25, 2003, touchdown enough to at least partially deploy its solar arrays.
Beagle 2 hitched a ride to Mars on the European Space Agency’s long-lived Mars Express mission. It was a collaboration between industry and academia designed to deliver world-class science from the surface of the Red Planet.
“I am delighted that Beagle 2 has finally been found on Mars,” said Mark Sims of the University of Leicester, U.K. He was an integral part of the Beagle 2 project from the start, leading the initial study phase and was Beagle 2 mission manager. “Every Christmas Day since 2003 I have wondered what happened to Beagle 2. My Christmas Day in 2003 alongside many others who worked on Beagle 2 was ruined by the disappointment of not receiving data from the surface of Mars. To be frank I had all but given up hope of ever knowing what happened to Beagle 2. The images show that we came so close to achieving the goal of science on Mars.
![pia19106-mro-beagle-wide[1]](http://hobbyspace.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/pia19106-mro-beagle-wide1.jpg)
This annotated image shows where features seen in an observation by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have been interpreted as hardware from the Dec. 25, 2003, arrival at Mars of the United Kingdom’s Beagle 2 Lander. The image was taken in 2014 by the orbiter’s HiRISE camera. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/University of Leicester Full image and caption
HiRISE images initially searched by Michael Croon of Trier, Germany, a former member of the European Space Agency’s Mars Express operations team, provide evidence for the lander and key descent components on the surface of Mars within the expected landing area of Isidis Planitia, an impact basin close to the equator.
Subsequent re-imaging and analysis by the Beagle 2 team, the HiRISE team and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, have confirmed that the targets discovered are of the correct size, shape, color and dispersion to be Beagle 2. JPL planetary geologist Tim Parker, who has assisted in the search and processed some of the images said, “I’ve been looking over the objects in the images carefully, and I’m convinced that these are Beagle 2 hardware.”
Analysis of the images indicates what appears to be a partially deployed configuration, with what is thought to be the rear cover with its pilot/drogue chute (still attached) and main parachute close by. Due to the small size of Beagle 2 (less than 7 feet, or 2 meters across for the deployed lander) it is right at the limit of detection of HiRISE, the highest-resolution camera orbiting Mars. The targets are within the expected landing area at a distance of about three miles (five kilometers) from its center.
“I can imagine the sense of closure that the Beagle 2 team must feel,” said Richard Zurek of JPL, project scientist now for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and previously for NASA’s still-missing 1998 Mars Polar Lander. “MRO has helped find safe landing sites on Mars for the Curiosity and Phoenix missions and has searched for missing craft to learn what may have gone wrong. It’s an extremely difficult task, as the craft are small and the search areas are vast. It takes the best camera we have in Mars orbit and work by dedicated individuals to be successful at this.”
HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project is managed for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.
For more information about HiRISE, visit: hirise.lpl.arizona.edu
Additional information about MRO is online at: www.nasa.gov/mro
====================================
And here is a statement from the UK government:
UK-led Beagle 2 lander found on Mars
Beagle 2 successfully landed on Mars on 25th December 2003.
The UK-led Beagle 2 Mars Lander, thought lost on Mars since 2003, has been found partially deployed on the surface of the planet, ending the mystery of what happened to the mission more than a decade ago. This find shows that the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) sequence for Beagle 2 worked and the lander did successfully touchdown on Mars on Christmas Day 2003. Beagle 2 hitched a ride to Mars on ESA’s Mars Express mission and was a collaboration between industry and academia. It would have delivered world-class science from the surface of the Red Planet. Many UK academic groups and industrial companies contributed to Beagle 2.
Images taken by the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and initially searched by Michael Croon of Trier, Germany, a former member of ESA’s Mars Express operations team at ESOC, have identified clear evidence for the lander and convincing evidence for key entry and descent components on the surface of Mars within the expected landing area of Isidis Planitia (an impact basin close to the equator).
Since the loss of Beagle 2 following its landing on Christmas Day 2003, Michael has, in parallel with members of the Beagle 2 industrial and scientific teams, been patiently screening images from HiRISE looking for signs of Beagle 2. Subsequent re-imaging and analysis by the Beagle 2 team, HiRISE team and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has confirmed that the targets discovered, are of the correct size, shape, colour and dispersion (i.e. separation) to be Beagle 2.
Dr David Parker, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, said:
The history of space exploration is marked by both success and failure. This finding makes the case that Beagle 2 was more of a success than we previously knew and undoubtedly an important step in Europe’s continuing exploration of Mars.
The images, following analysis by members of the Beagle 2 team and NASA, show the Beagle 2 lander in what appears to be a partially deployed configuration, with what is thought to be the rear cover with its pilot/drogue chute (still attached) and main parachute close by. Due to the small size of Beagle 2 (less than 2m across for the deployed lander) it is right at the limit of detection of imaging systems (cameras) orbiting Mars. The targets are within the expected landing area at a distance of ~5km from its centre. Several interpretations of the image of the lander have been identified, consistent with the lander’s size and shape. The imaging data is however consistent with only a partial deployment following landing. This would explain why no signal or data was received from the lander – as full deployment of all solar panels was needed to expose the RF antenna which would transmit data and receive commands from Earth.
Professor Mark Sims of the University of Leicester who was an integral part of the Beagle 2 project from the start leading the initial study phase and was Beagle 2 Mission Manager and led the Flight Operations team said:
I am delighted that Beagle 2 has finally been found on Mars. Every Christmas Day since 2003 I have wondered what happened to Beagle 2. My Christmas day in 2003 alongside many others who worked on Beagle 2 was ruined by the disappointment of not receiving data from the surface of Mars. To be frank I had all but given up hope of ever knowing what happened to Beagle 2. The images show that we came so close to achieving the goal of science on Mars. The images vindicate the hard work put in by many people and companies both here in the UK and around Europe and the world in building Beagle 2.
The highly complex entry, descent and landing sequence seems to have worked perfectly and only during the final phases of deployment did Beagle 2 unfortunately run into problems. I view it as a great achievement that the team built Beagle 2 in a little over 4 years and successfully landed it on the surface of Mars. It was a great pity we couldn’t have delivered the world class science Beagle 2 may have brought and even sadder that Colin (Pillinger) and other colleagues who died in 2014 didn’t live to see the discovery that Beagle 2 made it to Mars.
Beagle 2 showed the fantastic innovation skills available from UK academia and industry and inspired many people in particular the young. Many opportunities exist for the UK, working with other countries to do inspired space exploration and science (subject of course to available funding).
Unfortunately given the partial deployment (and covering of the RF antenna) it would not be possible to revive Beagle 2 and recover data from it. Professor Colin Pillinger from the Open University who led the Beagle 2 project with inspirational enthusiasm died in May 2014. Others that provided major contributions to Beagle 2 were Professor George Fraser of the University of Leicester and Professor David Barnes of Aberystwyth University who also died in 2014.
Space art led Belbruno to better space travel
Edward Belbruno has become well known for developing new orbital mechanics techniques that allow spacecraft to move about the solar system more efficiently, i.e with less fuel than a conventional approach. See, for example, From chaos, a new order – The Space Review – Mar. 6.200 6 –
This sensitivity to initial conditions may be a challenge to theoreticians, but it provides an opportunity for those who want to leverage it in spaceflight applications. One of the first to explore the potential of chaotic dynamics in spaceflight is Ed Belbruno, a visiting researcher at Princeton University. Working as an orbit analyst at JPL twenty years ago—new to the field of astrodynamics but with a doctorate in mathematics—he looked to alternatives to the traditional method to sending spacecraft to the Moon and planets. That approach, a Hohmann transfer orbit from the Earth and a “capture maneuver” at the destination, works well, but requires a high change in velocity, or delta-v, to perform the capture maneuver. Barring the availability of alternative deceleration techniques, like aerobreaking, this delta-v requirement translates into substantial propellant, and thus a heavier spacecraft.
…
Belbruno asked if there was a way for a spacecraft to perform a “ballistic capture” maneuver: to arrive at the Moon, for example, on a specific trajectory that would allow it to enter orbit without any delta-v at all. While his JPL colleagues at the time were convinced that it wasn’t possible, Belbruno studied the problem and found there was a way, as he put it, “to slowly creep up” on the Moon, arriving such that all the forces were balanced, allowing the spacecraft to go into orbit rather than escaping from or crashing into the Moon.
Belbruno first proposed taking advantage of “weak stability boundary theory” in 1986 for a proposed small lunar orbiter that could be launched from a Get Away Special canister in the shuttle’s cargo bay. …
Belbruno is also an artist and he says the act of painting helped him develop ideas like using the weak stability boundary technique : Painting Our Way to the Moon – Space.com.
I am both a scientist and an artist. The paintings that I create have given rise to interesting scientific discoveries. The paintings don’t just inspire me to pursue a particular avenue of study — they literally have the key within them to help me figure out how to solve complex scientific problems. The process of how this occurs is somewhat mysterious and has happened to me many times, and recently gave rise to a revolutionary new route to the Moon.
Check out some of his art at The Cosmic Art of Edward Belbruno (Gallery) – space.com.
Sci-Tech: Elon Musk announces plan to build a Hyperloop test track
I’ve posted several times about Elon Musk’s Hyperloop fast mass transit concept. Today he posted a couple of brief statements about plans to build a test track:
Will be building a Hyperloop test track for companies and student teams to test out their pods. Most likely in Texas.
Also thinking of having an annual student Hyperloop pod racer competition, like Formula SAE
See also:
- Elon Musk Hyperloop Test Track – Business Insider
- Elon Musk Boosts Hyperloop With Talk of Texas Test Track – NBC News.com
Update: Here is a transcript (courtesy Trent Waddington) of Elon’s remarks in Texas in which he briefly mentions the Hyperloop test track before switching to comments about Tesla.
Update 2: An article with more details about the test track : With a Hyperloop Test Track, Elon Musk Takes on the Critical Heavy Lifting -WIRED
If Musk does in fact build a test track, in Texas or elsewhere, it would be a huge help to the company that’s made more progress than anyone toward making the Hyperloop happen. The track isn’t the part of this endeavor that’s hard to engineer. “It’s a couple of tubes and a vacuum pump,” says Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of JumpStartFund, an El Segunda, California-based startup that is taking Musk up on his challenge to develop and build the Hyperloop. But, like most chunks of infrastructure, even in prototype sizes, it’s expensive.
Ten years since Cassini deployed Huygens to land on Titan
NASA and ESA mark the 10th anniversary of the landing of the Huygens probe onto Saturn’s moon Titan:
NASA and ESA Celebrate 10 Years Since Titan Landing
Ten years ago, an explorer from Earth parachuted into the haze of an alien moon toward an uncertain fate. After a gentle descent lasting more than two hours, it landed with a thud on a frigid floodplain, surrounded by icy cobblestones. With this feat, the Huygens probe accomplished humanity’s first landing on a moon in the outer solar system. Huygens was safely on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.
The hardy probe not only survived the descent and landing, but continued to transmit data for more than an hour on the frigid surface of Titan, until its batteries were drained.
Since that historic moment, scientists from around the world have pored over volumes of data about Titan, sent to Earth by Huygens — a project of the European Space Agency — and its mothership, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. In the past 10 years, data from the dynamic spacecraft duo have revealed many details of a surprisingly Earth-like world.
In addition to the technical wizardry needed to pull off this tour de force, international partnerships were critical to successfully delivering the two spacecraft to Saturn and Titan.
“A mission of this ambitious scale represents a triumph in international collaboration,” said Earl Maize, Cassini Project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
“From the mission’s formal beginning in 1982, to Huygens’ spectacular landing 23 years later, to the present day, Cassini-Huygens owes much of its success to the tremendous synergy and cooperation between more than a dozen countries. This teamwork is still a major strength of the project as the Cassini orbiter continues to explore the Saturn system,” Maize said.
A gallery of some of the best images related to Huygens is available at:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassinifeatures/huygens10
A collection of Huygens’ top findings is available from the European Space Agency at:
http://sci.esa.int/huygens-titan-science-highlights
Cassini’s mission is slated to continue through September 2017.
______________________________________________________________
Science Summary: 10 Years of Unveiling Titan
A decade ago, Titan was known as a hidden, hazy world. Findings made by NASA’s Cassini mission and the European Space Agency’s Huygens probe have unveiled Titan as an “alien Earth,” providing scientists with a unique world to explore.
A sampling of the top discoveries at Titan includes:
Lakes and Seas
Titan is a world with lakes and seas, made up of liquid methane and ethane. It is believed that these bodies of hydrocarbons are replenished by methane and ethane rainfall from clouds in the moon’s atmosphere. Titan is the only other place in the solar system known to have an Earth-like cycle of liquids flowing across its surface.
Active Meteorology and Surface Processes
Liquid methane drizzles onto Titan’s surface. Just like clouds on Earth, clouds on Titan form through a cycle of evaporation and condensation, with methane vapor rising from the surface, forming clouds and falling back down as precipitation. Huygens data suggest the presence of layered methane clouds in Titan’s troposphere, at altitudes between about 5 and 20 miles (8 and 30 kilometers). Titan’s “hydrological” cycle causes visible changes on the moon’s surface.
Organic Sand Seas
Seas of sand dunes, like those in Earth’s Arabian desert, are observed in the dark equatorial regions of Titan. Scientists believe the sand is not made of silicates as on Earth, but of solid water ice coated with hydrocarbons that fall from the atmosphere. Images show Titan’s dunes are gigantic, reaching, on average, 0.6 to 1.2 miles (1 to 2 kilometers) wide, hundreds of miles (kilometers) long and around 300 feet (100 meters) high.
The location of the Huygens probe’s resting place, a soft, sandy riverbed, was only confirmed after some time by the detection of two dark, longitudinal sand dunes, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) north of the landing site. The elusive landforms were visible in images from both Cassini radar and the probe.
First Determination of Depth for an Extraterrestrial Sea
Ligeia Mare, Titan’s second-largest sea, was revealed to be about 560 feet (170 meters) deep. This represents the first time scientists have been able to determine the depth of a body of open liquid on the surface of another world. This was possible, in part, because the liquid turned out to be mostly clear methane, allowing the radar signal to pass through it easily.
River Channels and Ice Cobbles
Images taken during the Huygens probe’s descent revealed river channels and flood plains. The probe’s cameras unveiled a plateau with a large number of dark channels cut into it, forming drainage networks that bore many similarities to those on Earth. The narrow channels converged into broad rivers, which drained into a broad, dark, lowland region. Earth-like river rocks, composed of water ice, were also observed at the Huygens probe landing site. Radar evidence from Cassini suggests that flash flooding has sculpted streambeds on Titan with these rounded cobbles of water ice, which likely originated in water-ice bedrock in higher terrain.
The Collapse of the Detached Haze
The massive atmosphere of Titan is shrouded in thick layers of photochemical smog. One of the “detached” layers has fallen in altitude from over 310 miles to only 240 miles (about 500 kilometers to only 380 kilometers) between 2006 and 2010. The changing altitudes indicate that Titan’s smog layers are coupled to a seasonal climate cycle.
Rich Chemistry in the Atmosphere, including Propylene
The Huygens probe made the first direct measurements of Titan’s lower atmosphere. Data returned by the probe included altitude profiles of the gaseous constituents, isotopic ratios and trace gases (including organic compounds). Huygens also directly sampled aerosols in the atmosphere and confirmed that carbon and nitrogen are their major constituents. Cassini detected propylene, a chemical used to make household plastic, in Titan’s atmosphere. This is the first definitive detection of the plastic ingredients on any moon or planet, other than Earth. Other chemicals observed indicate a rich and complex chemistry originating from methane and nitrogen and evolving into complex molecules, eventually forming the smog that surrounds the icy moon.
Argon-40 Isotope in the Atmosphere
Huygens’ detection of Argon-40, an isotope or type of the element argon, in Titan’s atmosphere indicates that the interior of Titan is still active. This is unusual in a moon and one of the first clues of subsurface liquid water on Titan. The presence of the Huygens probe on Titan’s surface was essential in detecting this substance, as it is mostly concentrated toward the bottom of the atmosphere (due to its relatively heavier weight compared to the lighter molecules comprising the atmosphere).
Liquid Water Subsurface Ocean
Cassini’s numerous gravity measurements of Titan revealed that this moon is hiding an internal, liquid water/ammonia ocean underneath its surface. Huygens also detected radio signals during its descent that strongly suggested the presence of an ocean 35 to 50 miles (55 to 80 kilometers) below the moon’s surface. The discovery of a global ocean of liquid water adds Titan to the handful of worlds in our solar system that could potentially contain habitable environments.
————————————————-
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter. NASA supplied two instruments on the Huygens probe, the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer and the Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer.
More information about Cassini is available at the following sites: