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Space News
March 2015
Ceres from Dawn February 12th
Showing “Bright Spots”
NASA's Dawn spacecraft has returned new images captured on approach to
its historic orbit insertion at the dwarf planet Ceres. Dawn will be the first
mission to successfully visit a dwarf planet when it enters orbit around Ceres
on Friday, March 6th.
Latest “Selfie” from Curiousity
A sweeping view of the "Pahrump Hills" outcrop on Mars surrounds the rover
in Curiosity's latest self-portrait. The selfie scene is assembled from dozens
of images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on the
rover's robotic arm.
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its drill on Tuesday, Feb. 24th to collect
sample powder from inside a rock target called "Telegraph Peak.
This hole, with a diameter slightly smaller than a U.S. dime is the 3rd to be
drilled in Curiosity’s 30 months on Mars. Current interest is the geological
ratios between Si, Al and Mg which may give clues to ancient water
leaching of minerals in the area.
2014 - a Busy Year for NASA
On Feb. 27, 2014, NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
launched the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory into
space from Japan. GPM and the other new missions are making observations
and providing new insights into global rain and snowfall, atmospheric carbon
dioxide, ocean winds, clouds and tiny airborne particles called aerosols. NASA
now has 20 Earth-observing space missions in operation
SMAP
24th February
Mission controllers at
NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena,
California, today sent
commands to unfurl the
20-foot-wide (6-meter)
reflector antenna on
NASA's new Soil Moisture
Active Passive (SMAP)
observatory, launched 31st
January.
NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission will produce highresolution global maps of soil moisture to track water availability around our
planet and guide policy decisions.
SMAP will help scientists understand the links in Earth's water, energy and
carbon cycles, help reduce uncertainties in predicting weather and climate,
and enhance our ability to monitor and predict natural hazards such as
floods and droughts.
CASSIOPE (CAScade, Smallsat and
IOnospheric Polar Explorer) is a madein-Canada small satellite from the
Canadian Space Agency.
You probably rely on a smart phone or
other device with a Global Positioning
System (GPS) module for guidance.
You may not realize that, especially at
high latitudes on our planet, signals
travelling between GPS satellites and
your device can get distorted in Earth's
upper atmosphere.
Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, in
collaboration with the University of New Brunswick in Canada, are studying
irregularities in the ionosphere about 217 miles (350 kilometers) above the
ground. They want to explore the near-Earth plasma and find out how big
plasma irregularities need to be to interfere with signals broadcast by GPS
ESA’s IXV Spaceplane,
launched on a Vega
rocket on 11 February
2015, is on its way to
Europe for detailed
study in Italy.
The Intermediate
eXperimental Vehicle
flew a flawless re-entry
and splashed down in
the Pacific Ocean just
west of the Galapagos
islands.
It lifted off at 13:40 GMT (14:40 CET, 10:40 local time) on 11 February from
Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana atop a Vega rocket.
It separated from Vega at an altitude of 340 km and continued up to 412 km.
Re-entering from this suborbital path, it recorded a vast amount of data from
more than 300 advanced and conventional sensors.
Improved Vision for the James Webb Space Telescope
Key science elements of the James Webb Space Telescope have been
upgraded ahead of the observatory’s launch in 2018. It has a 6.5 metre
diameter telescope and four state-of-the-art science instruments optimised
for infrared observations. Europe has led the development of two of the
instruments. Extensive testing has been carried out over the last year…
Ideas for next month ??
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