Desvelando los secretos de Venus

Desvelando los secretos de Venus

NASA RECEIVES WIDESPREAD CONCEPTS FOR FUTURE MARS MISSIONS

FROM:  NASA
WASHINGTON -- NASA's call to scientists and engineers to help plan a
new strategy to explore Mars has resulted in almost double the amount
of expected submissions with unique and bold ideas.

About 400 concepts or abstracts were submitted to the Concepts and
Approaches for Mars Exploration Workshop in Houston, which was
organized to gather input for the reformulation of NASA's Mars
Exploration Program. Submissions came from individuals and teams that
included professional researchers, undergraduate and graduate
students, NASA centers, federal laboratories, industry, and
international partner organizations.

NASA is reformulating the Mars Exploration Program to be responsive to
high-priority science goals and President Obama's challenge of
sending humans to Mars orbit in the 2030s.

"This strong response sends a clear message that exploring Mars is
important to future exploration," said John Grunsfeld, associate
administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's
headquarters in Washington and an astrophysicist and astronaut. "The
challenge now will be to select the best ideas for the next phase."

Selected abstracts will be presented during a workshop June 12-14
hosted by the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. Selectees are
now being invited to present and discuss concepts, options,
capabilities and innovations to advance Mars exploration. Workshop
discussion will help inform a strategy for exploration within
available resources beginning as early as 2018, and stretching into
the next decade and beyond. Proceedings will be streamed live online.


"Developing abstracts is very time consuming, requiring intense
preparation, and we appreciate the fabulous response," said Doug
McCuistion, director, NASA's Mars Exploration Program in Washington.
"Even though space is limited, to ensure transparency in the process
anyone can observe the scientific and engineering deliberations via
the Web."

Based on the abstracts selected, associated working groups will
consider the ideas and concepts in depth during the workshop.
Near-term ideas will be taken into consideration for early mission
planning in the 2018-2024 timeframe, while mid- to longer-term ideas
will inform program-level architecture planning for 2026 and beyond.

The Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG), tasked with developing options
for a reformulated Mars Exploration Program, will consider the
workshop inputs for the various options, taking into consideration
budgetary, programmatic, scientific, and technical constraints.

Options developed by the MPPG are expected to advance the science
objectives in the National Research Council's Planetary Science
Decadal Survey. The survey rated the return of Mars samples to Earth
as a top scientific goal. Developed in consultation with the
scientific and technical community, the MPPG report is expected to be
delivered for NASA review at the end of the summer.

The MPPG reports to Grunsfeld, who chairs the overall, agencywide
reformulation strategy along with William Gerstenmaier, associate
administrator for NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission
Directorate, NASA Chief Scientist Waleed Abdalati and NASA Chief
Technologist Mason Peck.

"Getting to Mars is hard," said Grunsfeld. "We've had successes and
losses, but the human spirit to continue exploring the Red Planet
prevails."

This August, NASA will land the Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity, on
the planet's surface. This roving science laboratory will assess
whether Mars was or is today an environment able to support life. In
2013, NASA will launch the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution
(MAVEN) orbiter, the first mission devoted to understanding the
Martian upper atmosphere.

ORS-1 BREAKING NEW GROUND

FROM:  U.S. AIR FORCE SPACE COMMAND
1 SOPS stands up alternate ORS-1 ops floor
by Scott Prater
Schriever Sentinel
5/23/2012 - SCHRIEVER AIR FORCE BASE, Colo.  -- Operationally Responsive Space-1 has been breaking new ground since it launched in 2010, so it only makes sense that the squadrons responsible for command and control of the satellite would need to take some innovative steps during its lifespan.

Members of the 1st and 7th Space Operations Squadrons established a backup ground-system location for ORS-1 recently, creating an alternate operations floor for the system at another Air Force installation.

Since ORS-1 is a unique satellite system that was developed and implemented much faster and has a shorter life expectancy than traditional satellite systems, a backup wasn't initially planned. But, squadron engineers figured out a way to nearly double the satellite's expected lifespan after it was launched.

"Most of us have experienced some kind of computer failure," said Lt. Col. Mike Manor, 1 SOPS commander. "Unfortunately, it happens more often than most people would like and with ORS-1's expanded life it made sense to create a backup system at an alternate location. Just in case the unexpected occurs here, our crews can rapidly deploy to the backup to ensure the vehicle is safe and the mission is not impacted."

As a space asset, ORS-1 performs an intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance mission and features a modified version of the Senior Year Electro-Optical Reconnaissance System-2 camera, normally employed by U-2 aircraft. The program was established during 2008 after U.S. Central Command expressed an urgent requirement for enhanced battle space awareness.

Once its lifespan grew to more than four years, redundancy of secure operations became a key priority for 1 and 7 SOPS.

Lt. Col. Robb Owens, 1 SOPS director of operations, explained the alternate location's operations floor provided a near perfect setting for the ORS-1 backup system.

"We have some mission-unique software, but since they use the same ground system architecture we can deploy our personnel and operate from there easier than we could somewhere else," Owens said. "It was an obvious fit."

The backup operations center will be activated in three phases, according to Manor.

In the first phase, which has already taken place, 1 and 7 SOPS operators, orbital analysts and engineers checked out the compatibility of systems and confirmed contact was possible with ORS-1. In the second phase, command and control crews actually contacted the vehicle via the Air Force Satellite Control Network and performed state-of-health commanding. The third phase will involve performing a station-keeping maneuver.

"If we can perform station-keeping maneuvers to maintain the vehicle's correct altitude and check the vehicle's health we know we can keep it operating," Manor said. "Those are two critical functions we need to accomplish."

Phase three, which also involves installing and testing mission-planning software, should occur later this year.

"At that point we will be able to sever ties with Schriever during an emergency situation and run operations from the backup operations floor," Manor said.

The combined 1 and 7 SOPS will not keep a permanent crew at the alternate location but will designate appropriate personnel for temporary assignment as needed.

"Our team is focused on ensuring mission operations remain uninterrupted regardless of the situation," Manor said. "The Joint force and our nation depend on our mission data, and it's incredibly important to have an extra layer of redundancy so we can deliver when needed."

SpaceX executes successful Falcon 9 launch

SpaceX executes successful Falcon 9 launch

Paolo Nespoli un anno dopo il suo rientro sulla terra - l’astronauta dell’ESA all’Università di Milano

Paolo Nespoli un anno dopo il suo rientro sulla terra - l’astronauta dell’ESA all’Università di Milano

Proba 1 weer de oude na ‘oogoperatie’

Proba 1 weer de oude na ‘oogoperatie’

Krajina pro robotické vozidlo

Krajina pro robotické vozidlo

Proba-2 captura el eclipse solar

Proba-2 captura el eclipse solar

COMPOSITE PHOTO FROM THE ISF

FROM:  NASA
This is a composite of a series of images photographed from a mounted camera on the Earth-orbiting International Space Station, from approximately 240 miles above Earth. Space station hardware in the foreground includes the Mini-Research Module (MRM1, center) and a Russian Progress vehicle docked to the Pirs Docking Compartment (right). Expedition 31 Flight Engineer Don Pettit said of the photographic techniques used to achieve the images: "My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes. However, with modern digital cameras, 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out the image. To achieve the longer exposures I do what many amateur astronomers do. I take multiple 30-second exposures, then 'stack' them using imaging software, thus producing the longer exposure." A total of 47 images photographed by the astronaut-monitored stationary camera were combined to create this composite. Image Credit: NASA

Ερασιτέχνες αστρονόμοι συμμετέχουν στο κυνήγι αστεροειδών της ESA

Ερασιτέχνες αστρονόμοι συμμετέχουν στο κυνήγι αστεροειδών της ESA

JAXA'S GLOBAL CHANGE OBSERVATION MISSION

FROM:  JAXA
Publisher :
 Public Affairs Department
 Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
 Marunouchi Kitaguchi Building,
 1-6-5, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8260 Japan
 TEL:+81-3-6266-6400
May 18, 2012 (JST)

Global Change Observation Mission 1st - Water "SHIZUKU" (GCOM-W1)
AMSR2 Antenna Deployment

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) confirmed that the Global Change
Observation Mission 1st - Water "SHIZUKU" (GCOM-W1) successfully deployed the
antenna of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2)* via image data
received at the Katsuura Tracking and Communication station.

The satellite is currently in good health.

* : Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer2 (AMSR2)
The AMSR2 measures electromagnetic waves called microwaves (six bandwidths
between 7 GHz and 89 GHz) emitted from nature, such as the ground and ocean
surface as well as objects in the atmosphere, to observe eight  geophysical
parameters (integrated water vapor, integrated cloud liquid water,
precipitation, sea surface temperature, sea surface wind speed, sea ice
concentration, snow depth, soil moisture content).

Sledujte on-line: „Rozšiřování pouští“ v pořadu Earth from Space

Sledujte on-line: „Rozšiřování pouští“ v pořadu Earth from Space

ESA Portal - Czech Republic - Mise Bepi Colombo k planetě Merkur

ESA Portal - Czech Republic - Mise Bepi Colombo k planetě Merkur

Descubierto en Titán un primo lejano de un lago efímero de Namibia

Descubierto en Titán un primo lejano de un lago efímero de Namibia

U.S. Department of Defense Armed with Science Update

U.S. Department of Defense Armed with Science Update