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NASA & World Space Exploration...News, Views, Photos & videos
- Thread starter bd popeye
- Start date
JayBird
Junior Member
SPACE SHOTGUN!
Ah Ha! Chinese and Russian will also want their own space shotguns so everyone can shoot at all the asteroids from other countries.
India Launches ‘Mars Atlas’ to Celebrate One Year in Mars Orbit
An Indian satellite has completed one year in orbit around Mars.
On Sept. 24, 2014, India became the only country to reach the red planet at first attempt with its probe, Mangalyaan,
Now the satellite has spent a year successfully circling the planet, and .
To mark the occasion, the Indian Space Research Organization has compiled a
The mission currently has no estimated end date.
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
The Aim of the Program concept is to identify a Asteroid that is large enough to survive reentry into the earth and seems to be on course for such. have the probe rendezvous then pepper it with projectiles, not to redirect but rather to gauge the solidity and ascertain if it's a solid mass of death or made up of smaller piecesAh Ha! Chinese and Russian will also want their own space shotguns so everyone can shoot at all the asteroids from other countries.
Nat Geo will release a documentary on the Mars Orbitor Mission on November 10
NASA is to reveal a “major science finding” regarding Mars on Monday, with the agency planning a special news conference to announce the findings.
The event will take place at 11.30 a.m. EDT (4.30 p.m. BST) on Monday, and you will be able to watch it live on NASA TV, which we have handily embedded below. Reporters will be onsite and asking questions by phone, while the public can get involved via #AskNASA.
What will the announcement be about? Well, you’ll have to wait and see, as NASA won’t be releasing any more information to the public until then.
Taking part in the news conference will be Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters; Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters; graduate student Lujendra Ojha of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta; Mary Beth Wilhelm of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California and the Georgia Institute of Technology; and Alfred McEwen, principal investigator for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Such events for NASA are not unprecedented, but they do usually herald a major discovery. In July, NASA convened a similar conference to announce the discovery of, the most Earth-like planet found outside the Solar System to date. While this latest event won’t be announcing life on Mars, its implications could be vital in understanding more about the Red Planet.
So tune in on Monday for a groundbreaking discovery about a world that we think was once rather similar to our own.
ASTROSAT is India’s first dedicated multi wavelength space observatory. This scientific satellite mission endeavours for a more detailed understanding of our universe. One of the unique features of ASTROSAT mission is that it enables the simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of various astronomical objects with a single satellite.
ASTROSAT will observe universe in the optical, Ultraviolet, low and high energy X-ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, whereas most other scientific satellites are capable of observing a narrow range of wavelength band. Multi-wavelength observations of ASTROSAT can be further extended with co-ordinated observations using other spacecraft and ground based observations. All major astronomy Institutions and some Universities in India will participate in these observations.
ASTROSAT has a lift-off mass of about 1513 kg. It will be launched into a 650 km orbit inclined at an angle of 6 deg to the equator by PSLV-C30. After injection into Orbit, the two solar panels of ASTROSAT are automatically deployed in quick succession. The spacecraft control centre at Mission Operations Complex (MOX) of ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bangalore will manage the satellite during its mission life.
The science data gathered by five payloads of ASTROSAT are telemetered to the ground station at MOX. The data is then processed, archived and distributed by Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC) located at Byalalu, near Bangalore.
The scientific objectives of ASTROSAT mission are:
- To understand high energy processes in binary star systems containing neutron stars and black holes
- Estimate magnetic fields of neutron stars
- Study star birth regions and high energy processes in star systems lying beyond our galaxy
- Detect new briefly bright X-ray sources in the sky
- Perform a limited deep field survey of the Universe in the Ultraviolet region
Payloads of ASTROSAT :
Five payloads of ASTROSAT are chosen to facilitate a deeper insight into the various astrophysical processes occurring in the various types of astronomical objects constituting our universe. These payloads rely on the visible, Ultraviolet and X-rays coming from distant celestial sources.
- The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT, capable of observing the sky in the Visible, Near Ultraviolet and Far Ultraviolet regions of the electromagnetic spectrum
- Large Area X-ray Proportional Counter (LAXPC, is designed for study the variations in the emission of X-rays from sources like X-ray binaries, Active Galactic Nuclei and other cosmic sources.
- Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) is designed for studying how the X-ray spectrum of 0.3-8 keV range coming from distant celestial bodies varies with time.
- Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager (CZTI), functioning in the X-ray region, extends the capability of the satellite to sense X-rays of high energy in 10-100 keV range.
- Scanning Sky Monitor(SSM),is intended to scan the sky for long term monitoring of bright X-ray sources in binary stars, and for the detection and location of sources that become bright in X-rays for a short duration of time.
Ahead of NASA's upcoming big announcement about the red planet, a paper published by the European Planetary Science Congress might have ruined the surprise: it confirms the presence of flowing salt water on Mars.
NASA their for a few days now, but it looks like the European Planetary Science Congress beat them to the punch: at long last, astronomers can officially confirm the presence of flowing, salty water on the red planet.
For a long time, scientists and amateurs alike . Water, of course, is a key ingredient to life as we know it - and its liquid presence on another planet is very exciting to anyone even remotely curious about the possibilities for extraterrestrial life. What creatures might swim in Mars' briny rivers?
Check out the gallery below for a high-res version of an artist's rendering of what Mars might have once looked like with a liquid ocean, courtesy of Wikipedia - not to mention a few of our other favorite views of the red planet.
But water means much more than that. It does not just mean our neighbor once hosted life, or perhaps still does -, . Water, too, is another indicator of just how similar our world is to Mars. That planet and Venus act as cautionary tales - ; what could have happened.
The discovery in particular concerns brine, or very salty water. The assumption had long been that fresh water would too easily freeze on Mars' surface; apparently, the red planet's rivers have some built-in anti-freeze.
We'll update this post once NASA makes their official announcement
today's payload included 4 U.S nanosatellites, 1 Canadian satellite, 1 Indonesian satellite, and 1 Indian (Astrosat)
Astrosat, India's first dedicated space observatory, was launched on Monday at 10 AM from the spaceport of Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. It is aimed at studying celestial objects.
PSLV-C30 carrying Astrosat along with six other co-passengers, one satellite each from Indonesia and Canada, and four nanosatellites from the US.
Mission Readiness Review (MRR) committee and Launch Authorisation Board (LAB) that met on September 25 had cleared the launch of PSLV-C30.
Commenting on the launch, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman AS Kiran Kumar had recently said, "What it means for India is this: it is one of the first scientific missions which will be available to the Indian researcher community as an observation opportunity. This is a starting point for such things."
Astrosat is India's first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory. This scientific satellite mission endeavours for a more detailed understanding of our universe.
One of the unique features of Astrosat mission is that it enables the simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of various astronomical objects with a single satellite, ISRO said.
Astrosat will observe the universe in optical, ultraviolet, low and high energy X-ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, whereas most other scientific satellites are capable of observing a narrow range of wavelength band.
Astrosat with a lift-off mass of about 1513 kg will be launched into a 650 km orbit inclined at an angle of 6 deg to the equator by PSLV-C30.
According to ISRO, after injection into Orbit, the two solar panels of ASTROSAT will automatically deployed in quick succession. The spacecraft control centre at Mission Operations Complex (MOX) of ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bengaluru will manage the satellite during its mission life.
ISRO said the scientific objectives of Astrosat mission are to understand high energy processes in binary star systems containing neutron stars and black holes, to estimate magnetic fields of neutron stars and to study star birth regions and high energy processes in star systems lying beyond our galaxy.
The mission is also to detect new briefly bright X-ray sources in the sky and to perform a limited deep field survey of the universe in the ultraviolet region.
Astrosat scheduled for five years of flight carries four X-ray payloads, one UV telescope and a charge particle monitor.
Apart from ISRO, four other Indian institutions - Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics and Raman Research Institute-are involved in payload development.
Two of the payloads are in collaboration with Canadian Space Agency and University of Leiscester, UK, ISRO said.
New findings from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars.
Using an imaging spectrometer on MRO, researchers detected signatures of hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on the Red Planet. These darkish streaks appear to ebb and flow over time. They darken and appear to flow down steep slopes during warm seasons, and then fade in cooler seasons. They appear in several locations on Mars when temperatures are above minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23 Celsius), and disappear at colder times.
“Our quest on Mars has been to ‘follow the water,’ in our search for life in the universe, and now we have convincing science that validates what we’ve long suspected,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This is a significant development, as it appears to confirm that water -- albeit briny -- is flowing today on the surface of Mars.”
These downhill flows, known as recurring slope lineae (RSL), often have been described as possibly related to liquid water. The new findings of hydrated salts on the slopes point to what that relationship may be to these dark features. The hydrated salts would lower the freezing point of a liquid brine, just as salt on roads here on Earth causes ice and snow to melt more rapidly. Scientists say it’s likely a shallow subsurface flow, with enough water wicking to the surface to explain the darkening.
"We found the hydrated salts only when the seasonal features were widest, which suggests that either the dark streaks themselves or a process that forms them is the source of the hydration. In either case, the detection of hydrated salts on these slopes means that water plays a vital role in the formation of these streaks," said Lujendra Ojha of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta, lead author of a report on these findings published Sept. 28 by Nature Geoscience.
Ojha first noticed these puzzling features as a University of Arizona undergraduate student in 2010, using images from the MRO's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE). HiRISE observations now have documented RSL at dozens of sites on Mars. The new study pairs HiRISE observations with mineral mapping by MRO’s Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM).
The spectrometer observations show signatures of hydrated salts at multiple RSL locations, but only when the dark features were relatively wide. When the researchers looked at the same locations and RSL weren't as extensive, they detected no hydrated salt.
Ojha and his co-authors interpret the spectral signatures as caused by hydrated minerals called perchlorates. The hydrated salts most consistent with the chemical signatures are likely a mixture of magnesium perchlorate, magnesium chlorate and sodium perchlorate. Some perchlorates have been shown to keep liquids from freezing even when conditions are as cold as minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 70 Celsius). On Earth, naturally produced perchlorates are concentrated in deserts, and some types of perchlorates can be used as rocket propellant.
Perchlorates have previously been seen on Mars. NASA's Phoenix lander and Curiosity rover both found them in the planet's soil, and some scientists believe that the Viking missions in the 1970s measured signatures of these salts. However, this study of RSL detected perchlorates, now in hydrated form, in different areas than those explored by the landers. This also is the first time perchlorates have been identified from orbit.
MRO has been examining Mars since 2006 with its six science instruments.
"The ability of MRO to observe for multiple Mars years with a payload able to see the fine detail of these features has enabled findings such as these: first identifying the puzzling seasonal streaks and now making a big step towards explaining what they are," said Rich Zurek, MRO project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
For Ojha, the new findings are more proof that the mysterious lines he first saw darkening Martian slopes five years ago are, indeed, present-day water.
"When most people talk about water on Mars, they're usually talking about ancient water or frozen water," he said. "Now we know there’s more to the story. This is the first spectral detection that unambiguously supports our liquid water-formation hypotheses for RSL."
The discovery is the latest of many breakthroughs by NASA’s Mars missions.
“It took multiple spacecraft over several years to solve this mystery, and now we know there is liquid water on the surface of this cold, desert planet,” said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “It seems that the more we study Mars, the more we learn how life could be supported and where there are resources to support life in the future.”
These dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks called recurring slope lineae flowing downhill on Mars are inferred to have been formed by contemporary flowing water. Recently, planetary scientists detected hydrated salts on these slopes at Hale crater, corroborating their original hypothesis that the streaks are indeed formed by liquid water. The blue color seen upslope of the dark streaks are thought not to be related to their formation, but instead are from the presence of the mineral pyroxene. The image is produced by draping an orthorectified (Infrared-Red-Blue/Green(IRB)) false color image (ESP_030570_1440) on a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) of the same site produced by High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (University of Arizona). Vertical exaggeration is 1.5.
Credits: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Dark narrow streaks called recurring slope lineae emanating out of the walls of Garni crater on Mars. The dark streaks here are up to few hundred meters in length. They are hypothesized to be formed by flow of briny liquid water on Mars. The image is produced by draping an orthorectified (RED) image (ESP_031059_1685) on a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) of the same site produced by High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (University of Arizona). Vertical exaggeration is 1.5.
Credits: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona