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Friday, April 16, 2021
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How NASA Is Planning To Explore Our Solar System

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solar system

Here is how NASA is planning to explore our solar system

Here is how NASA is planning to explore our solar system: The Agency has ambitious plans for the future. NASA wants to build bigger and better telescopes. The Agency also wants to continue exploring Mars, and it’s keeping an eye on Jupiter’s moons.

The Juno mission is going to reveal the first close-up images of Jupiter, on the 27th of August, during the spacecraft’s planet flyby. NASA wants to keep exploring the solar system, to answer basic questions like how humanity came to be, where we are going and whether we’re alone in space.

Even in our solar system, there are a lot of promising worlds and objects which remain uncharted, says NASA Director Jim Green. The future missions will focus on these distant and enigmatic worlds.

The James Webb Telescope, which is going to be launched in 2018, will be able to observe dimly lit objects across the universe, and also all neighboring planets and their moons. It will have an unparalleled degree of finesse, and it will be able to follow geologic activity.

One of Jupiter’s moons – Io, has an intense geological activity. This volcanically active world will also be looked at by the James Web Telescope for follow-up information. Another source of hope and questions is Europa – a mysterious moon, which may have a liquid ocean beneath the icy surface.

The veteran Hubble telescope, with its upgraded instruments, has photographed Jupiter’s auroras and found evidence of saltwater on Jupiter’s Ganymede. The Hubble mission has been extended for five more years, and NASA believes it will continue to amaze us.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is currently exploring Saturn, with its rings and moons. It has been doing that since 2004. In 2017, will be the final stage of Cassini’s long mission. It will dive 22 times between Saturn’s outer atmosphere and the ring of asteroids and moons. These plunges are going to be part of the Grand Finale, which will provide scientists with new insights and answers.

Titan is a major Saturn satellite. It has a rich atmosphere and surface chemistry. It will continue to be explored by the James Webb Telescope after the Cassini mission ends.

NASA’s Dawn mission is going to take a look at two large, intact asteroids inside our solar system. These are called Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres.

Many other missions and discoveries will follow, in the years to come.

Image Source – Pixabay

Thousands of People Have Applied to Become Astronauts

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Thousands of people have applied to become astronauts in hope that they will journey to Mars.

Thousands of people have applied to become astronauts for NASA’s next program. The deadline was last Thursday and it seems the space agency will have a lot of work to do when sorting the 18,300 applications.

According to NASA, the number is thrice as much as in 2012. The previous record of applications was back in 1978 when 8,000 people wanted to become astronauts. From the total of 18,000, the agency will choose between eight and fourteen people to fulfill their dream and maybe travel to Mars in the 2030s. The decision is expected to be made before summer 2017, so the applicants will have quite some time to wait.

The reason why so many people decided to send their applications could stand in the fact that the Mars trip is closing in, but also in the new discoveries that have been made lately, from the comet lander to the pictures of Pluto. According to Charles Boden, the administrator of NASA, the number of applications does not truly come as a surprise. Numerous Americans with diverse backgrounds wish to become involved in the incredible journey to Mars.

The applications will be reviewed by the Astronaut Selection Board of NASA during the next eighteen months, which will determine the best qualified candidates.

Taking a look at the past, in 1959 NASA had to select seven astronauts from five hundred military men, all with experience in jet aircraft flight and engineering. However, as the years passed, in 1964 the space agency started to focus on individuals with academic backgrounds. Candidates needed to have an engineering, medicine or natural sciences doctorate degree in order to be eligible.

At the moment, those who wish to become astronauts must have a bachelor’s degree in either engineering, natural sciences or mathematics, but also three years of practical experience in one of the related fields. For instance, pilots need about one thousand flight hours in a jet. However, they also need to fulfill other criteria such as having a height from 62 to 75 inches and 20/20 vision. Furthermore, they must pass various tests, such as the space flight physical for long durations of time.

Applicants who are qualified for the job will then have interviews at the Johnson Space Center. The eight to fourteen candidates that will be selected will go through a rigorous training that lasts for two years and involves spacewalking, learning about spacecraft systems and learning the Russian language. Then, they will begin their jobs at the Houston Astronaut Office after which they will be assigned to one of the following spacecraft: Crew Dragon from SpaceX, Starliner from Boeing or Orion, the International Space Station.

The fact that thousands of people have applied to become astronauts is not a surprise because there are many people in the world who wish to do or become something truly special during their lifetimes.

Image Source: Wallpaper UP

Asteroid Will Pass Close by Earth

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NASA has announced that an asteroid will pass close by Earth in March.

While flying objects from space seldom enter the atmosphere of our planet, an asteroid will pass close by Earth next month. However, NASA has stated that the probability of it colliding with the planet is very small.

The asteroid is expected to fly so close to Earth that humans will be able to see it on the sky with no special equipment. The space government agency is still trying to determine the exact trajectory of the flying object. Doomsdayers are once again predicting the end of the world, or at least some massive damage.

The asteroid named 2013 TX68 has already passed by our planet three years ago, and has a diameter of 30 meters. Back in 2013, scientists were able to follow its course for three days after which it disappeared in the night sky. Recently, NASA has spotted 2013 TX68 once more and it seems the asteroid will come as close as 11,000 miles from Earth, which is about the twentieth part of the distance to the Moon.

The manager of the Centre for Near Earth Object Studies of NASA, Paul Chodas, has previously stated that people should not be alarmed by the passing of the asteroid. Its approach is not expected to have any effect on our planet or the atmosphere. His statement was also confirmed by scientists from the Center for NEO Studies of NASA who are currently investigating 2013 TX68 at the Jet propulsion laboratory located in Pasadena, California. Chodas added that their telescopes might be able to monitor its trajectory and thus gather more information on the asteroid’s orbit.

The asteroid might return sometime in 2017, but in the future the probability of a collision is even smaller. Experts expect those probabilities to reduce as the future dates approach.

In spite of this information, people usually tend to fear what they cannot control. Not to mention that every now and then debris from space does reach Earth. Only last weekend a man was killed in India after he was hit by the debris shot by a small object that dropped from the sky. Officials have yet to determine the origin of the object. And let’s not forget the show put on by the meteor that exploded in a fiery blaze over Russia in 2013. Although it did not cause any catastrophic damage, it managed to injure 1,600 people.

It seems that we do not have enough reasons to worry that an asteroid will pass close by Earth, since it is not expected to cause any damage.

Image Source: Amos News

Mars communication will be cut this month due to Mars solar conjunction, says scientists

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mars solar conjunctionNASA will not be able to communicate with any spacecraft on the Red Planet for two weeks or 14 days in June.

This will begin as Mars slip to behind the sun as seen from our home planet. This alignment is known as Mars solar conjunction that takes place roughly once every 26 months as the two planets dance in their relative orbits around our parent star.

The spacecraft which are orbiting Mars are Maven, Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. There are two rovers on the surface that includes Curiosity and Opportunity.

During this two week period, NASA, the space agency will not be able to contact with the five vehicles.

During this time, rovers on the ground will be directed to stand still, and the robotic arms will not be in operation. But, some of the spacecraft will still be able to perform scientific experiments. Except for Maven, mission planners on other programs have experienced similar blackouts during previous conjunctions.

Nagin Cox, head of the conjunction planning for Curiosity rover and from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said, “Our overall approach is based on what we did for the solar conjunction two years ago, which worked well. It is really helpful to have been through this before.”

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution or Maven spacecraft arrived at Mars in September 2014. That vehicle will continue to study the solar wind emanating from the sun during the blackout period.

James Morrissey, deputy project manager for Maven at the Goddard Space Flight Center said, “The data will be stored and transmitted back to us after communications are re-established at the end of the solar conjunction period.”

The other two orbiters circling Mars, MRO and Odyssey, will continue to send information back to earth, but the mission planners believe that much of the information will be lost.

Odyssey orbiter reached mars in 200, making this conjunction is the seventh conjunction for the vehicle.

The two rovers on the surface of Mars will send the data to the orbiters as they collect new information on the alien environment.

Program managers will send some of the information back to Earth during the blackout, while other data will be stored for transmission after regular communication is reestablished.

NASA postpones test of supersonic parachute

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ldsdNASA has planned the second test run of breaking technology for its Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator or LDSD.

NASA is hoping for more success with the giant parachutes that could one day help it slow down as it lands on Mars.

Reports from NASA stated that this high altitude test is going to take place in Hawaii. The test will take place in U.S. Navy pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai.

NASA reported that the current condition of the seas in Hawaii has made it difficult to launch the LDSD, and the height of the waves is not suitable for the safe recovery of the test vehicle once it splashes down in the Pacific Ocean.

Before this, the space agency had to postpone the test flight of the LDSD twice because of unfavorable ocean conditions.

On July 3, saucer shaped LDSD will be launched with a weather balloon to test its redesigned supersonic parachute, which has last year shredded during its first 3,000 mph descent. But the test  was scrubbed for the third time today because of a line of rain showers that caused unstable wind conditions.

The next available launch date is tomorrow.

The supersonic parachute which was the largest ever flown last year has been reshaped, reinforced and enlarged.

The LDSD is having a doughnut shaped balloon that creates atmospheric drag as it descends through a planet’s atmosphere before parachutes open to further slow it and allow for safe landing.

NASA is having four cameras mounted on the craft for the test, two will show the performance of the balloon as it inflates, the other one is focused on the rockets that allow NASA to control the LDSD in space, and the last one on the parachutes.

The test will be streaming live on NASA TV, no earlier than 1:30 p.m. EDT.

The biggest concern of NASA is what happens to the supersonic parachutes at Mach  2.35.

Mark Adler, manager of the project LDSD at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California said, “You get to see all the same video I do, at the same time I do. This year’s test is centered on how our newly-designed supersonic parachute will perform. We think we have a great design ready for the challenge, but the proof is in the pudding and the pudding will be made live for everyone to see.”

Scientists discover Earth-sized exoplanets have circular orbits like earth

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exoplanetsScientists have discovered that Earth sized exoplanets orbit their parent star just like our planets orbit the sun, would help them to zero in on planets most likely to harbor extraterrestrial life.

It was a debate whether our solar system was a special case or it is a common norm for all the planets to orbit around that parent star and at same distance.

Scientists are from the MIT and Denmark’s Aarhus University.

Scientists for the study have examined orbits of 74 exoplanets travelling around 28 stars.

Vincent Van Eylen, a visiting graduate student in the MIT Department of Physics said, “Twenty years ago, we only knew about our solar system, and everything was circular and so everyone expected circular orbits everywhere. Then we started finding giant exoplanets, and we found suddenly a whole range of eccentricities, so there was an open question about whether this would also hold for smaller planets.”

The scientists have determined roughly equidistant circular orbits, and believe that the norm is followed in at least the systems with planets as small as the Earth.

Researchers have first created the hypothetical orbits of planets around parent star with predetermined characteristics, based on the assumption of circular orbits.

Then the researchers have used the NASA’s Kepler space telescope to determine the actual orbital periods of the planets, and they found that it matched with the predicted models, confirming that their orbits were circular and regular.

Giant exoplanets are in contrast to the Earth sized bodies, as they orbit in eccentric orbits, which bring them very close to the host star and then take them very far from it.

This discovery is going to have an effect on the search for extraterrestrial life, as Earth sized exoplanets have stable orbit around their host star which means that the conditions on those planets are likely to remain stable and steady over time.

Van Eylen says an earth sized planet compact enough to consist mostly of rock, as opposed to consisting mostly of gas, as with giant exoplanets, in regular circular orbit around its star would result in stable climate all through the planets year that could make it hospitable to life.

He added, “If eccentric orbits are common for habitable planets, that would be quite a worry for life, because they would have such a large range of climate properties, but what we find is, probably we don’t have to worry too much because circular cases are fairly common.”

NASA begins testing the next Mars lander Mission called Insight

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insightNASA is preparing for next mission to Mars. NASA is planning to launch the lander Insight in March 2016, Insight is short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport.

The spacecraft will lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The lander is expected to land on Red planet about six months later.

Insights will helps scientist to get insights on technical capabilities and knowledge, which is important to NASA’s other journey to Mars and other Mars mission, including the mission to send humans to Mars by 2030s.

Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at the headquarters in Washington said, “Today, our robotic scientific explorers are paving the way, making great progress on the journey to Mars. Together, humans and robotics will pioneer Mars and the solar system”.

The lander will examine the planets deep interior and give information on how the planet has evolved geologically and offer clues on Earths future and the evolution of rocky planets.

It will be the first mission, which will reveal about the Red Planet’s cure.

The testing of the lander would help to ensure that it has the potential to operate and survive deep space travel and harsh conditions on Martian surface.

The lander will be tested in the company’s facility in Denver which built it.

The lander was built by Lockheed Martin’s Space Systems.

During the test, it will be exposed to extreme temperatures, vacuum conditions of nearly zero air pressure simulating interplanetary space, and battery of other tests over the next seven months.

Thermal vacuum will be tested, other tests will also include vibrations simulating launch and checking for electronic interference between different parts of the spacecraft.

The Insight mission is part of NASA’s Discovery program, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

The mission is led by Bruce Banedt, from JPL a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Cassini makes close flyby of Hyperion, Saturn’s moon

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cassiniAccording to the press release from the NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations, the Cassini, spacecraft is going to make close approach to the odd shape Saturn’s moon, Hyperion on Saturday, May 31.

The spacecraft will pass Hyperion with about 21,000 miles or 34,000 kilometers between them, at approximately 9:36 a.m. or 6:36 a.m. PDT.

The images taken by the spacecraft is expected to arrive on Earth within 24 to 48 hours.

Scientists are having high hopes that they will encounter different terrain on Hyperion than the mission has previously explored in detail, but this is not guaranteed.

Hyperion rotated chaotically and unpredictably in space as it orbits Saturn. This is a problem because of its unpredictability; in most of the Cassini’s previous close approaches has encountered the similar face of the moon.

Hyperion is having low density for such a large object, about half that of water. So this low density makes the moon porous, with weak surface gravity.

This characteristic possessed by the moon tends it to compress when hit by an impactor, rather than excavating it and most material that is blown off the surface.

The next flyby of Cassini after May 31 is on June 16, when the spacecraft will pass 321 miles above icy Dione. The June flyby will be the mission’s penultimate close approach to that moon.

Cassini is going to make two close flybys of the Active moon Enceladus in October. It this flyby it will be as close as 30 miles.

In late 2015, the spacecraft will again depart Saturn’s equatorial plane, where moon flybys occur most frequently, to begin the year long setup of the mission’s final year.

Finally Cassini will repeatedly dive through the space between Saturn and its rings.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a project of NASA, ESA and the Italian Space Agency.

NASA celebrates Hubble Space Telescope’s 25 years of space exploration

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US space agency NASA is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the space tour of its advanced Hubble Space Telescope.

Hubble is best known for capturing numerous rare images of celestial bodies and the space. The highly powerful telescope has immensely contributed in the space study by offering close examinations of the deep space and celestial bodies, including our planet Earth.

Among its various important contributions include the first observations of the dwarf planet Pluto’s surface and the characterization of the moons of Haumea.

John Grunsfeld, NASA Science Mission Directorate astronaut and associate administrator, said, “Hubble has completely transformed our view of the universe, revealing the true beauty and richness of the cosmos. This vista of starry fireworks and glowing gas is a fitting image for our celebration of 25 years of amazing Hubble science.”

NASA’s revolutionary telescope has successfully survived decades of glitches, delays and blunders for fulfilling the predictions that it would rewrite the science.

Ken Sembach, head of the Hubble mission at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, said, “The combination of these two observatories will be very powerful scientifically. They’ll be able to follow up on each other’s discoveries.”

Hubble was launched in April 24, 1990.  The mission was originally planned for 1983 launch but it was delayed first due to the hiccups in its assembly and further because of the explosion of space shuttle Challenger in 1986.

The telescope has undergone five servicing missions, beginning with the crucial repair in 1993 and concluding with a complete makeover in 2009. Two key new instruments were added, while two others were fixed in the procedure.

The space scientists are aiming at keeping Hubble in operation for at least another five years.

 

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