Monthly Archives: November 2014

Asteroids & Comets, Astronomy, Simulators

Simulating Rosetta and Philae with ‘SpaceTraveller’

BINARY SPACE, which provides the Satellite Tracking Tool and with whom I work to make the Virtual SpaceTV 3D animated news reports, is developing a new program called the SpaceTraveller,”a solar system simulator and space mission visualizer program”. This video uses SpaceTraveller to depict the maneuvers of the Rosetta spacecraft at the comet Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It also shows the lander Philae and its deployment to the comet (currently scheduled for November 12, 2014).

For further info on SpaceTraveller, contact  info@binary-space.com.

Exoplanets, SETI

TESS exoplanet finder makes a step towards approval + Video: What can SETI learn from Kepler?

The TESS  (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) project is developing a follow-on observatory to the Kepler mission to look for planets around other stars using the transit method (i.e. the dimming of the starlight when a planet crosses between the star and the line of sight to earth.)

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is an Explorer-class planet finder. In the first-ever spaceborne all-sky transit survey, TESS will identify planets ranging from Earth-sized to gas giants, orbiting a wide range of stellar types and orbital distances. The principal goal of the TESS mission is to detect small planets with bright host stars in the solar neighborhood, so that detailed characterizations of the planets and their atmospheres can be performed.

TESS will monitor the brightnesses of more than 500,000 stars during a two year mission, searching for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits. Transits occur when a planet’s orbit carries it directly in front of its parent star as viewed from Earth. TESS is expected to catalog more than 3000 transiting exoplanet candidates, including a sample of ∼500 Earth-sized and ‘Super Earth’ planets, with radii less than twice that of the Earth. TESS will detect small rock-and-ice planets orbiting a diverse range of stellar types and covering a wide span of orbital periods, including rocky worlds in the habitable zones of their host stars.

Today NASA announced approval for the mission to continue to the next step in design and development. If eventually approved for launch, it would go to space in 2017.  NASA’s TESS Mission Cleared for Next Development Phase | NASA

===

A panel discussion at last summer’s SETICon 2 event that examined the question, What Can SETI Learn from Kepler?

The panel included:

Geoff Marcy – an astronomy professor at both UC Berkeley and at San Francisco State University. Together with his collaborators, he has discovered over 250 extrasolar planets. 

Martin Still – Still began his role as Director of the Kepler Guest Observer Office in August 2009. His scientific interests lie in the study of accretion, compact binary stars, black hole physics, gamma-ray bursts and exoplanet detection and characterization.

Seth Shostak – Senior Astronomer, Seth is an enthusiastic participant in the Institute’s SETI observing programs. He also heads up the International Academy of Astronautics’ SETI Permanent Committee ….and is the host of the SETI Institute’s weekly science radio show, “Big Picture Science.”

Douglas Caldwell –  Physicist Doug Caldwell is an expert on one of the most promising schemes for finding small worlds far beyond our solar system: looking for the slight dimming of a star caused when a planet crosses between it and us.

Moderator:  Andrew Fraknoi – Chair of the Astronomy Department at Foothill College and Senior Educator at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

 

 

Living in Space, Space Systems

Video: ‘Space to Ground’ – ISS activities – Nov.7.14

The latest NASA Space to Ground report on activities in the past week related to the Int. Space Station:

Activism, Space Science, Space Systems

Heinlein Award goes to Daniel J. O’Shaughnessy for solar sail propulsion technique on Messenger probe

An announcement from the Heinlein Prize Trust:

The Heinlein Prize Trust
HEINLEIN AWARD
recognizes innovative solar sail propulsion used
in the MESSENGER mission to Mercury

The Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Prize Trust’s new Heinlein Award honors
space-tested technology that can benefit commercial space activities.

The inaugural winner of the Heinlein Award for technology is Daniel J. O’Shaughnessy, the first to employ solar panels as sails to control the path of a spacecraft without using its rocket propulsion system.

Messenger_Dan_OShaughnessy

O’Shaughnessy is lead mission systems engineer for the MESSENGER spacecraft, built and operated by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, which manages this Discovery-class mission for NASA.

His technique was first used when the APL team accurately aimed MESSENGER for its first flyby of Mercury in 2008.

“This was the most critical part of the mission,” O’Shaughnessy says. “Performance was key, and I wanted to keep the risk low.”

The technology uses the force generated by sunlight to guide the craft, allowing for more precise — and less risky — course adjustment. It also conserves propellant, helping extend the life of the spacecraft and the mission.

Cost-efficient technology that is designed and implemented quickly is a hallmark of APL.

“Whenever we can reduce difficulty and cost, it helps accomplish our goals,” O’Shaughnessy says.

MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) is a NASA-sponsored scientific investigation of Mercury and the first mission to orbit the planet closest to the Sun.

MESSENGER was launched August 3, 2004, and entered orbit on March 17, 2011. It’s on its second extended mission, scheduled to conclude in Spring 2015. Dr. Sean C. Solomon, director of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, leads the mission as principal investigator.

[MESSENGER Sails on Sun’s Fire for Second Flyby of Mercury – NASA – Sept.5.08]

• THE ROBERT A. & VIRGINIA HEINLEIN PRIZE TRUST •

Robert A. Heinlein™ was an American writer of speculative fiction who published more than 150 novels, short stories and articles.

The Heinlein Prize Trust is a nonprofit foundation that maintains the legacy of the late author and his wife, Virginia, by promoting the commercial uses of space.

The Heinlein Prize for Advances in Space Commercialization, founded in 1988, recognizes accomplishments which advance the couple’s dream of humanity’s future in space.

The Heinlein Award, introduced in 2014, recognizes the use of new technologies in space that can benefit commercial space activities.

Mars, Space participation, Space Settlement

Interview with Gerald Driggers, author of Earth-Mars Chronicles + Volunteering for Mars One

Gerald W. Driggers, author of the Earth-Mar Chronicles book series,  was interviewed on the Space Show this week: Gerald Driggers, Monday, 11-3-14 | Thespaceshow’s Blog,

They talked about the books and about Mars settlement in general.

A portion of the payment for the books goes to the Mars One project. Popular Science has an interesting extended article about the Mars One project and the motivations of those who want to sign up for it : Why Thousands Of People Are Willing To Die On Mars – Popular Science “More than 200,000 aspiring space explorers have volunteered for a one-way trip to Mars. Are they insane?”