Watch NASA's Colorful Simulation of Space Weather All The Way Out to Pluto

• Scientists from NASA have released a computer rendering of how space weather occurs that was constructed using data collected through the New Horizons mission in the Pluto system.

• Compared to weather occurrences on Earth such as torrential rains or clear skies, weather patterns in space consist of plasma released by the sun that travels to the different corners of the solar system.

• In the latest NASA video created by the American space agency's Scientific Visualization Studio, the temperature in space is represented by the color red, density is represented by the color green and shock waves passing through the plasma field are represented by the color blue.

• Areas that show more than one trait is represented in the visualization using color combinations such as those in purple, which depicts portions with low density and hot shock waves.

• Robert Steenburgh, a researcher at the Space Weather Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), explained that space weather is composed of a combination of plasma, energetic particles, solar wind and flares that are released by the sun.

• Steenburgh makes use of a scientific model known as Enlil to monitor the behavior of space weather in order to predict disruptive occurrences such as radio blackouts that could severely damage satellites in orbit.

• NASA and NOAA researchers use the Enlil model to determine the impact of space weather on Earth. The reach of the model, however, only extends to just past the planet Mars. Weather patterns beyond that point remain a mystery to scientists.

Keywords: mission in the Pluto system, hot shock waves, radio blackouts.

Aspiring Astronauts, You Have Two Months to Send Your Resume to NASA

• NASA has good news for you. This morning, the agency kicked off its latest open call for astronaut candidates, complete with the above recruitment video and a Reddit AMA with NASA astronaut Shannon Walker and selection manager Anne Roemer, scheduled for 4PM EST.

• Applications will be accepted on this website until February 18, 2016, and the new class of would-be spacefarers will be announced in mid-2017. But before you shoot off your resume, be sure that you meet the minimum qualifications. Eligibility is contingent on US citizenship and a bachelor’s degree in engineering, biological science, physical science, computer science, or mathematics. It will also help your odds to have racked up at least 1,000 hours piloting a jet aircraft, or at least three years of comparable experience, according to the official announcement.

• While pursuing an off-Earth career is perennially exciting, now is a particularly interesting time to get in the running. Hopefully, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) will be debuting within the next few years, which will return crewed launches to American soil after a long stint of dependence on Russia for astronaut transport.

• Moreover, NASA’s Orion spacecraft is currently in development for ambitious future deep space missions—including crewed trips to Mars. Perhaps some of the candidates recruited by this call will end up taking those momentous first steps on another planet.

Keywords: US citizenship and a bachelor’s degree in engineering, biological science, physical science, computer science, or mathematics.

NASA to attempt rocket launch, but foul weather persists

• The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying Orbital ATK's Cygnus craft, should liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 5:33 p.m. ET Friday, zooming on its way to deliver more than 7,300 lbs. of much-needed experiments, food and other supplies to the astronauts aboard the Space Station.

• The Orbital ATK launch originally was scheduled for Thursday evening, but rain and heavy cloud cover forced postponement. Orbital contracted with ULA to use the Atlas for two missions in order to resume flight operations as quickly as possible after the mishap. But if the spacecraft launches later in its 30-minute launch window, its rendezvous with the station will slip to Tuesday (Dec. 8), 

• Today's weather outlook does not appear to be much better, with only a 30 percent chance of favorable conditions at launch time.

• An unmanned Atlas rocket was poised to lift off at sunset with about 3,550 kilograms of supplies for the International Space Station.

• The rocket and Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo ship began rolling just after 10 a.m. Wednesday atop a transporter about one-third of a mile from a processing tower to the pad.

• The Deke Slayton II is the first ISS-bound spacecraft that had been previously worked on inside the space station. The original S.S. Deke Slayton was the cargo craft lost in last year's explosion.

• This is an important launch for Orbital after its failed launch in October of past year, when its Antares rocket exploded 15 seconds from launch, turning the cargo into a fireball and damaging Wallops Island's launchpad.

• More attention than usual is focused on the Orbital CRS-4 mission because of three recent failures involving resupply efforts.

• Also aboard the newest Cygnus capsule: clothes, toiletries, spacewalking gear, air-supply tanks and science experiments. SpaceX will now launch its Falcon 9 rocket, equipped with Crew Dragon spacecraft, at the launch site in Florida.

Keywords: Launch Window, cargo craft, cargo, Orbital CRS-4 mission 

NASA releases coloured images of Pluto

•  NASA has released an enhanced colour mosaic that combines some of the sharpest views of Pluto which the US space agency's New Horizons spacecraft obtained during its historic flyby of the icy-dwarf planet. The pictures are part of a sequence taken near New Horizons' closest approach to Pluto on July 14 this year, with resolutions of about 77-85 metres per pixel showing features smaller than half a city block on Pluto's surface.

• Lower resolution colour data (at about 630 metres per pixel) were added to create the new image. The images form a strip 80 kilometres wide, trending from the edge of 'badlands' northwest of the informally named Sputnik Planum, across the al-Idrisi mountains, onto the shoreline of Pluto's 'heart' feature, and just into its icy plains.

• NASA combined pictures from the telescopic Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) taken approximately 15 minutes before New Horizons' closest approach to Pluto (from a range of only 17,000 kilometres) with colour data gathered by the Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) 25 minutes before the LORRI pictures.

• The wide variety of cratered, mountainous and glacial terrains seen in the images give scientists and the public alike a breathtaking, super-high-resolution colour window into Pluto's geology. 
•  

Keywords: icy-dwarf planet, telescopic Long Range Reconnaissance Imager.

More lousy launch weather as NASA tries to restart commercial space station Sacred Heart

• SCIENCE More lousy launch weather as NASA tries to restart commercial space station Israel Montgomery 05 December 2015, 05:06 

• A rocket launch to supply cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) by American aerospace manufacturer Orbital ATK has been pushed back due to adverse weather conditions. 

• The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Orbital ATK's Cygnus spacecraft onboard seen shortly after arriving at Space Launch Complex 41 on December 2, 2015, at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. However, the weather forecast for Friday is only 30 percent favorable for takeoff, the United States space agency said. Times may change if the launch is delayed. 

• While NASA's worldwide partners have helped keep supplies flowing to astronauts aboard the station, this will be the first U.S.-based attempt since then. The United Launch Alliance rocket will transport 7,400 pounds of space station supplies packed into the Cygnus capsule. 

• As per the contract the Orbital company is required to carry at least 44,000 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) by the end of 2016. The improvements come after the October 2014 accident, when an Orbital ATK Antares rocker that was to deliver a Cygnus spacecraft to the ISS crashed six seconds after launch. Russian Federation and Japan have managed to fill the gap since April's USA resupply mission, but the 250-mile-high pantry isn't as full as it should be. 

• NASA's other contracted supplier, SpaceX, also remains stuck on Earth. The last time Orbital launched, its rocket exploded seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia, destroying the Cygnus cargo carrier and damaging the pad. Sacred Heart.

Keywords - Restart commercial space station Israel Montgomery, United Launch Alliance rocket, Orbital ATK Antares rocker.

Nasa and Orbital ATK set to launch a Cyngus rocket to International Space Station today

• The latest in a series of private-sector space missions will be launched today, in another effort to restock the International Space Station (ISS). 
• Space technology company Orbital ATK is due to launch a Cyngus rocket packed with supplies from Cape Canaveral in Florida just after 5.30pm UK time.
• The craft will deliver 3.5kg of food, clothes, supplies and technology for science experiments to the ISS. The equipment will prepare Nasa for studies it will carry out during up-coming missions.
• The launch was supposed to happen yesterday, but had to be postponed to today due to adverse weather conditions.
• But the success of this mission is far from certain if previous space launches by private companies are anything to go by. Last year, Orbital' Antares rocket exploded just seconds into its launch to the ISS.
• Additionally, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket blew up shortly after leaving the ground in June this year. That said both companies have completed a series of successful missions with Nasa in recent years.
• If this mission is successful, it will revive Nasa's effort to commercialise its resupply missions to the ISS. Together, Orbital and SpaceX have a split deal worth $3.6bn with Nasa, and are currently competing for a further $3.5bn contract that will be awarded in January.

Keywords - Nasa and Orbital ATK set to launch a Cyngus rocket, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket blew up shortly.

NASA team explains how water escapes from Saturn

• Researchers have found how water ions escape from the Saturn's environment after locating a point from where the ions exhaust out of the planet's atmosphere.

• Daniel Reisenfeld, a professor at theUniversity of Montana in US, is a member of the Cassini research team, a NASA-managed probe that studies Saturn. Cassini has been in orbit continuously collecting data since 2004. One of the instruments on Cassini measures the planet's magnetosphere - the charged particles, known as plasma, that are trapped in the space surrounding Saturn by its magnetic field.

• One of Cassini's past discoveries is that Saturn's plasma comprises water ions, which are derived from Saturn's moon Enceladus, which spews water vapours from its Yellowstone-like geysers. Knowing that the water ions would not be able to accumulate indefinitely, researchers set out to explain how the water ions escape from Saturn's magnetosphere.

• The researchers said that the plasma found a place to exhaust out of the magnetosphere at a reconnection point - where magnetic fields from one environment disconnect and reconnect with magnetic fields from another environment. In the case of Saturn, researchers discovered the reconnection point was located at the back of the planet, where the magnetotail was connecting with the solar winds' magnetic field.

• Reisenfeld likens the situation to a rotary or a traffic circle. Once you get into the rotary you have limited exit points. "If you can't find the exit, you keep going around in circles," he said. "So, the plasma around Saturn is basically trapped to go around the rotary. We assumed it had to escape somehow and somewhere, but actually finding the jettison point is pretty cool," he said.

• The discovery will help scientists understand the physics of how other rapid rotators such as Jupiter, stars and pulsars expel their materials and the details of how it works. "It's very exciting to have discovered this reconnection location because reconnection is one of the holy grails of plasma physics," Reisenfeld said.

Keywords - Saturn's plasma comprises water ions, Yellowstone-like geysers, magnetotail, jettison point is pretty cool.

NASA to launch first CubeSat built by students

• US space agency NASA is set to launch three small research satellites, or CubeSats, which have been designed and developed by more than 400 students from two universities and a primary school.

• CubeSats were selected through the CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) as part of the ninth installment of the Educational Launch of Nanosatellite (ELaNa) missions, a NASA statement said. ELaNa IX will be launched atop an Atlas V rocket that is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at at 5.55 p.m on Thursday.

• The CubeSats will be deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) through the commercially-operated NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer (NRCSD) system. CubeSats are playing an increasingly larger role in exploration, technology demonstrations, scientific research and educational investigations at NASA.

Keywords – CubeSats, CubeSat Launch Initiative, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

NASA Space Telescopes See Magnified Image of Faintest Galaxy from Early Universe

• Astronomers harnessing the combined power of NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have found the faintest object ever seen in the early universe. It existed about 400 million years after the big bang, 13.8 billion years ago.

• The team has nicknamed the object Tayna, which means "first-born" in Aymara, a language spoken in the Andes and Altiplano regions of South America.
  

• Though Hubble and Spitzer have detected other galaxies that are record-breakers for distance, this object represents a smaller, fainter class of newly forming galaxies that until now had largely evaded detection. These very dim objects may be more representative of the early universe, and offer new insight on the formation and evolution of the first galaxies.

• The team has been able to study for the first time the properties of extremely faint objects formed not long after the big bang," said lead author Leopoldo Infante, an astronomer at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. The remote object is part of a discovery of 22 young galaxies at ancient times located nearly at the observable horizon of the universe. This research means there is a substantial increase in the number of known very distant galaxies.

• The new object is comparable in size to the Large Magellanic Cloud, a diminutive satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. It is rapidly making stars at a rate 10 times faster than the Large Magellanic Cloud. The object might be the growing core of what will likely evolve into a full-sized galaxy.

• The small and faint galaxy was only seen thanks to a natural "magnifying glass" in space. As part of its Frontier Fields program, Hubble observed a massive cluster of galaxies, MACS0416.1-2403, located roughly 4 billion light-years away and weighing as much as a million billion suns. This giant cluster acts as a powerful natural lens by bending and magnifying the light of far more distant objects behind it. Like a zoom lens on a camera, the cluster¹s gravity boosts the light of the distant proto-galaxy to make it look 20 times brighter than normal. The phenomenon is called gravitational lensing and was proposed by Albert Einstein as part of his General Theory of Relativity.

• The galaxy's distance was estimated by building a color profile from combined Hubble and Spitzer observations. The expansion of the universe causes the light from distant galaxies to be stretched or reddened with increasing distance. Though many of the galaxy's new stars are intrinsically blue-white, their light has been shifted into infrared wavelengths that are measurable by Hubble and Spitzer. Absorption by intervening cool intergalactic hydrogen also makes the galaxies look redder.

• This finding suggests that the very early universe will be rich in galaxy targets for the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope to uncover. Astronomers expect that Webb will allow us to see the embryonic stages of galaxy birth shortly after the big bang.

Keywords - NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, Hubble and Spitzer, Magnifying glass.

LISA Pathfinder Carries Advanced NASA Thruster Tech

• The LISA Pathfinder spacecraft is on its way to space, having successfully launched from Kourou, French Guiana. On board is the state-of-the-art Disturbance Reduction System (DRS), a thruster technology developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

• LISA Pathfinder, led by the European Space Agency (ESA), is designed to test technologies that could one day detect gravitational waves. Gravitational waves, predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity, are ripples in space time produced by any accelerating body. But the waves are so weak that Earth- or space-based observatories would likely only be able to directly detect such signals coming from massive astronomical systems, such as binary black holes or exploding stars. Detecting gravitational waves would be an important piece in the puzzle of how our universe began.

• The incredible faintness of gravitational waves makes it critical to keep a spacecraft stable enough to detect them. But there are obstacles to staying completely still, even in seemingly empty space. Most notably, solar radiation pressure -- the force exerted by sunlight -- pushes on the spacecraft ever so delicately. In fact, the force of solar radiation pressure on LISA Pathfinder is analogous to the weight of a grain of sand on earth.

• To test the concept of gravitational-wave detection technology, LISA Pathfinder uses two cube-shaped test masses. These masses are objects designed to respond -- to the greatest extent possible -- only to gravity. They are made of a mixture of gold and platinum, which means they are very dense and also non-magnetic. Each weighs about 4 pounds (2 kilograms) and measures 1.8 inches (4.6 centimeters) on a side. The masses will float in separate vacuum chambers, 15 inches (38 centimeters) apart.

• The spacecraft's position will be continuously adjusted using its ultra-precise thrusters to stay centered about these test masses. Using lasers, the position of the freely floating test masses will be measured, by an ESA-provided interferometer instrument, to an accuracy of 100,000th of the width of a human hair.

• LISA Pathfinder will not directly detect gravitational waves, but it will demonstrate technologies necessary to observe these mysterious phenomena. A full-scale observatory could use the same kind of sensors, but they would be housed in three individual spacecraft separated by about 600,000 miles (1 million kilometers). Scientists could then measure how gravitational waves change the distance between the test masses, which would be a difference on the scale of picometers (one picometer is one trillionth of a meter).

• LISA Pathfinder launched on a Vega rocket and will take about seven weeks to reach its operational orbit. The spacecraft will orbit what is called the Lagrange Point L1, about 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth in the direction of the sun.

• The spacecraft will then begin a six-week commissioning period followed by eight months of technology demonstration. ESA's LISA Technology Package, with a different set of cold gas thrusters and separate software that controls them, will be demonstrated for the first four months. The DRS will be tested for about four months after that.

• LISA Pathfinder is managed by ESA. The spacecraft was built by Airbus Defence and Space, Ltd. (UK). Airbus Defence and Space, GmbH (Germany), is the payload architect for the LISA Technology Package. The DRS is managed by JPL. The California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA.

Keywords- LISA Pathfinder spacecraft, European Space Agency, solar radiation pressure, gravitational-wave detection technology, Vega rocket

NASA's Cassini captures varying characteristics of Saturn's rings and Enceladus

          NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been sending stunning images lately, of planet Saturn and its largest moon Enceladus, the last one being an image of it emanating a lustrous shine. Now, NASA has released a pic that was taken by Cassini recently that captures Enceladus and Saturn's rings showing different characteristics, even though they are both made up of ice water. NASA describes their varying characteristics, saying that the small ring particles are too tiny to retain internal heat and have no way to get warm, so they are frozen and geologically dead. Enceladus, on the other hand, is subject to forces that heat its interior to this very day. This results in its famous south polar water jets, which are just visible above the moon’s dark, southern limb, along with a sub-surface ocean. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 29, 2015, while the view was acquired at a distance of approximately 630,000 miles (1.0 million kilometers) from Enceladus and at a Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase angle of 155 degrees. Image scale is 4 miles (6 kilometers) per pixel.

Keywords - NASA's Cassini spacecraft,NASA captures Enceladus and Saturn's rings.

NASA Wants to Reach Mars With a Little Help From Its Friends

• In the middle of the Cold War scramble to best the Soviets in space, NASA received all the money it needed to put astronauts on the moon. The present-day dream of footsteps on Mars won't be quite so simple. A far more expensive Martian mission would blow apart the agency's budget, making it more likely that NASA will need to rely on a little help from space-faring friends.

• A recent NASA white paper on the next steps in the “journey to Mars” made the moon comparison explicit: “Like the Apollo program, we embark on this journey for all humanity.” But all humanity won’t foot the bill. Only a select handful of nations have the engineering and hardware capacity to help make the mission a reality. On Monday, NASA officials joined peers from the European Space Agency (ESA) and Airbus at NASA’s Plumb Brook research station in Sandusky, Ohio, to mark an important milestone in the Orion program, which will take astronauts beyond the moon to outer regions of the solar system. The attendees witnessed the delivery of the first service module that will provide propulsion, power, air, and water for astronauts on their way to Mars.

• The Orion service module is model of international cooperation and cost-sharing that will be key to reaching the red planet. It was funded by ESA, built by Airbus Group in Europe, and delivered to NASA. Over the next year it will endure a battery of structural tests before a first flight to orbit the moon in mid-2018. That flight will also be the first full-scale test of the largest rocket in NASA history, the Space Launch System. If all goes according to plan, the first manned Orion-SLS flight is expected to launch by 2023, with a manned mission to Mars expected by 2040. But only after spending a large amount of money. 

• Of NASA’s current $18 billion budget, about $2.4 billion goes toward the Orion and SLS programs. The agency says its current budgets will support Orion flights into the 2020s, with about one planned per year as research missions to help build capability for a Mars trip. NASA has offered no projections for the total costs needed to get to Mars. One reason for that is to avoid “scaring” lawmakers, said Marco Caceres, a senior analyst at Teal Group, an aerospace consultancy. Caceres estimates that the Mars mission would cost at least $1 trillion—and that triple that amount “is not out of the realm of possibility.”

Keywords - Martian mission ,European Space Agency (ESA) and Airbus at NASA’s Plumb Brook research station in Sandusk,a manned mission to Mars expected by 2040. But only after spending a large amount of money.

NASA discards reusable engines, Blue Origin and SpaceX push new frontiers

• On the Monday before Thanksgiving NASA made what it deemed a momentous announcement: the space agency had awarded $1.16 billion to Aerojet Rocketdyne for rocket engines that would power its “Journey to Mars.” By contrast, a few hours earlier, the private space company Blue Origin secretly launched a rocket into space and safely landed it. The contrast between the deal struck in corridors of Washington D.C. and what had happened in the desert of West Texas could not have been more stark.

• The engines that will power NASA’s new rocket, the Space Launch System, were first developed in 1970. These RS-25 engines that gave the space shuttle its thrust were engineering marvels; with some refurbishment NASA could use them over and over again. But now NASA is funding a contract to restart production of those old engines because they would no longer be reused. Like the rest of the massive SLS rocket, its engines will be used once and then burn up in the atmosphere.

• In contrast to the billions of dollars NASA spends on legacy hardware, Blue Origin has received about $25 million from the agency during its 15-year existence. That’s less than the cost of a single RS-25 engine. With the launch of its New Shepard vehicle, Blue Origin has gone not only for reusable engines but a reusable booster and a reusable spacecraft. Why? Because this approach is much, much cheaper than throwing flight-quality hardware away after every launch.

• NASA, of course, has aimed for low-cost, reusable vehicles in the past. Just three months after the flight of Apollo 11, in 1969, NASA’s chief of manned spaceflight said as much. At NASA’s space shuttle symposium that year George Mueller set an ambitious goal for the vehicle: slash the cost of flying stuff to orbit all the way down to $25 a pound. Regular folks could buy tickets into space. “We can open up a whole new era of space exploration,” Mueller said at the meeting.

• But the shuttle, although a technical wonder and the world’s first reusable orbital spacecraft, did not come close to this lofty goal. Over the course of three decades and 135 flights, the shuttle’s costs were much closer to $25,000 a pound. The space shuttle had two accidents, first in 1986 and then in 2003. It also wasn’t as easy to reuse the vehicle as hoped. And with traditional NASA contracting processes, the shuttle proved very expensive to fly.

Keywords - Awarded $1.16 billion to Aerojet Rocketdyne for rocket engines,RS-25 engines that gave the space shuttle,world’s first reusable orbital spacecraft,shuttle proved very expensive.

NASA sees Tropical Cyclone Tuni becomes extra-tropical

• NASA's GPM core satellite and NOAA's GOES-West satellite saw the Southern Pacific Ocean's Tropical Storm Tuni was being battered by wind shear and had lost its tropical characteristics.

• On Nov. 28, the RapidScat instrument aboard the International Space Station saw Tropical Cyclone Tuni's maximum sustained winds near 27 meters per second (60.4 mph/97.2 kph) southeast of the center.

• At 0900 UTC (4 a.m. EST) on Nov. 29, Tuni's maximum sustained winds were near 40 knots (46 mph/74 kph). It was located about 132 miles south of Pago Pago, American Samoa. Later in the day at 2100 UTC (4 p.m. EST) the Joint Typhoon Warning Center issued their final bulletin on Tropical Cyclone Tuni. At that time, Tuni's maximum sustained winds were down to 35 knots (40 mph/62 kph). It was centered near 17. 9 degrees south latitude and 169.3 degrees west longitude, about 231 miles south-southeast of Pago Pago, American Samoa. Tuni was becoming extra-tropical as it moved to the southeast at 14 knots (16.1 mph/25.9 kph).

• Northwesterly wind shear had increased and had pushed the strongest storms, and clouds southeast of the center of Tuni's circulation.

• NOAA's GOES-West satellite captured at visible image of the storm at 2152 UTC (4:52 p.m. EST) and showed that the bulk of clouds were pushed far southeast of the center. NASA/JAXA's Global Precipitation Measurement Mission or GPM core satellite passed over Tropical Cyclone Tuni and measured the rate in which rain was falling within the storm. GPM found heavy rain, falling at a rate of more than 1.4 inches (35.5 mm) per hour southeast of the center. Images from both satellites were combined at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. to provide a total picture of the storm.

• By Nov. 30, Tuni had become extra-tropical while weakening over the open waters of the southern Pacific Ocean. When a storm becomes extra-tropical it has lost its "tropical" characteristics. The National Hurricane Center defines "extra-tropical" as a transition that implies both pole ward displacement (meaning it moves toward the north or south pole) of the cyclone and the conversion of the cyclone's primary energy source from the release of latent heat of condensation to baroclinic (the temperature contrast between warm and cold air masses) processes. It is important to note that cyclones can become extra tropical and still retain winds of hurricane or tropical storm force.

Keywords - NASA's GPM core satellite and NOAA's GOES-West satellite,Tropical Cyclone Tuni,captured at visible image of the storm at 2152 UTC (4:52 p.m. EST).

NASA's 'time machine' James Webb telescope to be launched in 2018 Gazette Standard

• Several innovative technologies have been developed for the Webb Telescope, which is targeted for launch in 2018, and is the successor to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. 

• The space telescope in the works is a project led by NASA in partnership with the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency. Well, with the new James Webb space telescope set to be launched in 2018 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), mankind will be able to "go back in time" to see how some stars and galaxies we know today were formed.

• The telescope will be used not only to look into space but also peer into our past. The mirrors must remain precisely aligned in space in order for Webb to successfully carry out science investigations. "This starts the final assembly phase of the telescope". The segment measures over 4.2 feet (1.3 meters) across and weighs approximately 88 pounds (40 kilograms). The 18 primary mirror segments will work together as one large 21.3-foot (6.5-meter) mirror after being pieced together.

• The mirrors, built by Colorado-based Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation and installed by New York's Harris Corporation, are composed of super lightweight beryllium, selected for mechanical and thermal qualities at cryogenic temperature levels. 

• The wings and the telescope structure are crucial as they make up the carbon fiber framework poised to hold the 18 mirror segments and the primary mirror's tower. "The James Webb Space Telescope will be the premier astronomical observatory of the next decade", said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington.

Keywords - NASA's Hubble Space Telescope,NASA in partnership with the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency,The mirrors, built by Colorado-based Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation.

NASA Lab Partners with Startup To Detect Wildfires from Space

• NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced plans Nov. 19 to work with two companies to develop a constellation of satellite sensors to provide early detection of wildfires.

• The FireSat system would host more than 200 thermal-infrared imaging sensors on satellites in low Earth orbit. The sensors are designed to detect fires as small as 10 to 15 meters across on the ground within 15 minutes of their ignition, giving firefighters the ability to respond before they burn out of control.

• JPL has been working on the FireSat concept since 2011. “Such a system has only now become feasible at a reasonable cost, enabled by advances in commercial microelectronics that NASA, JPL and universities have tested in space,” Robert Staehle, lead designer for FireSat at JPL, said in a statement.

• JPL will support Quadra Pi R2E, a San Francisco-based startup, in the design, demonstration and development of the proposed sensor constellation. The sensors will be manufactured by Ecliptic Enterprises of Pasadena, California.

• JPL and the companies did not disclose what satellites will ultimately host the sensors, but did say they expect to have a fully operational system in place by June 2018. Quadra stated on its website that the project is expected to cost $30 million, and will be financed through nongovernment grants, investment funds and debt

Keywords - Constellation of satellite sensors, FireSat system,Ecliptic Enterprises of Pasadena

NASA sees Tropical Storm Sandra being shredded by wind shear

• A NASA animation of satellite imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite showed Tropical Storm Sandra has become decoupled by strong wind shear as it was approaching landfall in western Mexico on the morning of Nov. 28.

• At 4 a.m. EST (0900 UTC) on Saturday, Nov. 28 the center of Tropical Storm Sandra was located near latitude 21.4 North, longitude 109.2 West. Sandra was 115 miles (180 km) south--southeast of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. There are no coastal watches or warning in effect.

• Sandra is moving toward the north near 2 mph (4 kph), but a turn to the north-northeast with an increase in forward speed is expected today. The estimated minimum central pressure is 1000 millibars. Maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 40 mph (65 kph)and a is forecast to become a remnant low early Sunday or sooner.

• An animation of visible and infrared imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite from Nov. 26 to Nov. 28 shows Tropical Storm Sandra approaching the coast. The center of circulation was still over water, while the bulk of clouds and showers were pushed east of center by strong vertical wind shear. Sandra is weakening rapidly. The animation was created by the NASA/NOAA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. The National Hurricane Center noted that Sandra's top layer was decoupled from the lower layer by very strong upper-level winds, and now consists of a tight swirl of low clouds devoid of deep convection (clouds and thunderstorms).

• Sandra is expected to produce total rainfall accumulations of 2 to 4 inches with isolated maximum amounts of 6 inches across the Mexican states of Nayarit, Jalisco, southern Sinaloa, western Zacateca and southern Durango. This rainfall could produce life-threatening flash flood and mudslides.

Keywords - Satellite imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite showed Tropical Storm Sandra, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland,Rainfall accumulation,life-threatening flash flood and mudslides.

Orion Gets Beefed Up, Silver-Metallic Thermal Protection Coating for Next Flight on EM-1

• NASA’s supremely successful inaugural test flight of the Orion deep space capsule on the EFT-1 mission in Dec. 2014, NASA is beefing up the critical thermal protection system (TPS) that will protect astronauts from the searing heats experienced during reentry as the human rated vehicle plunges through the Earth’s atmosphere after returning from ambitious expeditions to the Moon and beyond.

• Based in part on lessons learned from EFT-1, engineers are refining Orion’s heat shield to enhance the design, ease manufacturing procedures and significantly strengthen is heat resistant capabilities for the far more challenging space environments and missions that lie ahead later this decade and planned further out in the future as part of NASA’s agency-wide ‘Journey to Mars’ initiative to send humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s.

• On all future flights starting with Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1), the Orion crew module must withstand the higher temperatures and speeds experienced during return from more distant destinations such as the Moon, near-Earth Asteroids and Mars.

Keywords-Orion deep space capsule on the EFT-1 mission,Critical thermal protection system ,Orion’s heat shield ,Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1).

ExoMars Work at Frenzied Pace To Make 2016 Launch Date

• Europe’s two-launch ExoMars mission to Mars in 2016 and 2018, which has run a budgetary obstacle course from the start, remains in dead lined-stressed mode with triple-shift work days on the eve of first mission’s  shipment to Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome to prepare for a March launch,government and industry officials said Nov. 24.

• Contrary to what several European Space Agency governments thought as they reluctantly financed the 1.2 billion-euro ($1.28 billion) Exo Mars project — Europe’s principal space exploration mission — the industrial team led by Thales Alenia Space has been able to keep to the schedule and save the 2016 launch date.

• A component defect discovered only this summer forced a slip in the schedule and the loss of the January launch window. But a backup date of March 14-25 has been secured on a Russian Proton rocket. Russia is ESA’s partner in ExoMars and is providing two Proton rockets for the launches, plus considerable scientific hardware for the 2018mission.

• The 2016 mission features a Mars orbiter that will test for trace gases in the atmosphere, plus a lander that will be carried by the orbiter and then ejected to operate for several days on Mars’ surface after having demonstrated the entry and landing capability aided by a supersonic parachute, also made in Europe.

• Pending several final system validations with ESA that Thales Alenia Space characterized as routine, the 2016 mission’s construction phase ends Dec. 10. Three Antonov cargo jets then will carry the more than 50,000 kilograms of Exo Mars gear from Turin, Italy, to Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan between Dec. 18 and Dec. 21.
• For now, ESA still needs to complete the financing for ExoMars. The 2018 mission is missing around 175 million euros and maybe more depending on how negotiations with the industrial team conclude hen will carry the more than 50,000 kilograms of Exo Mars gear from Turin, Italy, to Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan between Dec. 18 and Dec. 21.
• While all the small component builders are under contract to prevent schedule delays for the 2018 mission, the principal hardware development contract with Thales Alenia Space, Airbus Defence and Space’s British division and OHB SE of Germany has not been signed Dec. 21.
• As was the case with the 2016 package, the 2018 mission, which includes much more Russian participation as well as a European rover vehicle, has little schedule margin. Already some are talking about a 2019 launch that would use a different route to Mars to arrive at about the same time.
  

Keywords-Dead lined-stressed mode with triple-shift work days,Russian Proton rocket,Thales Alenia Space Airbus Defence and Space’s British division and OHB SE of Germany.

The Mars Curiosity Rover Found a Martian Mouse

             Remember when keen-eyed fans of the photos provided by the Mars Curiosity Rover found an alien crab? That was a massive breakthrough in the “this could be a rock, or it could be an alien” community. Today, folks have spotted an alien mouse in the latest NASA photo dump or, at least, a rock that looks like a mouse.

             

                It’s probably not a mouse. And that other picture of an alien crab? Wishful thinking, If there is alien life on Mars, it’s probably microscopic at best and regardless, it’s probably not evidenced in any of the public photos on NASA’s website.At least people are excitedly looking at all of the Curiosity Rover photos, right? That means they’ll also get to see some of these beautiful shots of the Mars basalt dunes, which almost look like a churning sea.

Keywords-keen-eyed fans,alien crab, alien mouse in the latest NASA photo dump,Mars basalt dunes.

NOAA Weather Satellite Breaks Up in Orbit

• A U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite retired in 2014 has suffered an apparent breakup, the second time in less than a year that a polar-orbiting weather satellite has generated orbital debris.

• The Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) announced Nov. 25 that it had identified a possible breakup of the NOAA 16 satellite. The center, which tracks objects in orbit and warns of potential collisions, said it first detected the breakup at 3:41 a.m. Eastern time and was tracking an unspecified number of “associated objects” in the orbit of NOAA 16.

• JSpOC said later Nov. 25 that the debris from NOAA 16 posed no current threat to other satellites in orbit. It added that it did not believe the debris resulted from a collision with another object, suggesting that NOAA 16 broke up on its own.

• NOAA 16 launched in September 2000 with a planned lifetime of three to five years. The spacecraft continued to operate in a backup role until June 2014, when NOAA retired the spacecraft after an unspecified “critical anomaly.”

• The breakup, if confirmed, would be the second time in less than a year for a satellite in polar orbit. In February, the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 13 satellite exploded in orbit, creating several dozen pieces of debris. A sudden temperature spike in that spacecraft led spacecraft engineers to conclude a battery in the spacecraft ruptured because of a design flaw. Seven other DMSP spacecraft have a similar design flaw.

• Orbital debris mitigation guidelines developed by the U.S. government recommend removing all sources of on-board energy on a spacecraft, including venting propellant tanks and discharging batteries, when a spacecraft reaches the end of its mission. It’s not clear if spacecraft controllers were able to carry out those procedures when the NOAA 16 spacecraft encountered its mission-ending anomaly last year.

• September 2000 with a planned lifetime of three to five years. The spacecraft continued to operate in a backup role until June 2014, when NOAA retired the spacecraft after an unspecified “critical anomaly.”

• The breakup, if confirmed, would be the second time in less than a year for a satellite in polar orbit. In February, the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 13 satellite exploded in orbit, creating several dozen pieces of debris. A sudden temperature spike in that spacecraft led spacecraft engineers to conclude a battery in the spacecraft ruptured because of a design flaw. Seven other DMSP spacecraft have a similar design flaw.

Keywords - Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 13 satellite exploded in orbit, creating several dozen pieces of debris,DMSP spacecraft.