2017年5月31日 星期三
Shadowrise and Sunset
NASA TV Coverage Set for Return of Two Space Station Crew Members
May 31, 2017
from NASA http://ift.tt/2seYgGz
via IFTTT
Stratolaunch Rolls Megaplane Out For A Peek
Paul Allen's Stratolaunch Systems brings monster plane out of hangar for first time, Geekwire
"Stratolaunch CEO Jean Floyd said the plane's emergence from its hangar at California's Mojave Air and Space Port was part of a "major milestone in its journey toward providing convenient, reliable and routine access to low Earth orbit." The plane is designed to carry up to three Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rockets at a time into the air, and then set them loose to launch payloads into orbit. .. Stratolaunch says the first launch demonstration, involving a single Pegasus XL, will take place as early as 2019."
Keith's note: So ... when will they announce that they have found a commercially viable reason to launch Dream Chaser?
from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/2snxFGr
via IFTTT
'Gov' Okoloise
"Governor A. Okoloise passed away on Sunday, May 21, 2017 at age 49. His family came to America from Nigeria when he was a boy. Gov, as we called him, worked at Johnson Space Center for the past 24 years. A dedicated space worker, he certified space life sciences and exercise hardware throughout the 90s. Most recently, he was responsible for the design, assembly and safety of the EMU Space suit and hardware used during ISS space walks (EVA). He was a congenial and personable friend to everyone, going out of his way to help others as much as possible."
from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/2qBV8mY
via IFTTT
Space Station's View of Florida at Night
Parker Solar Probe: NASA renames upcoming mission to touch the Sun
Jason Davis • May 31, 2017
Parker Solar Probe: NASA renames upcoming mission to touch the Sun
Fourteen months from today, NASA plans to launch a spacecraft into the Sun.
On July 31, 2018, a 20-day launch window opens for the Parker Solar Probe, a mission advertised as humanity's first visit to a star. The spacecraft will lap the Sun 24 times as it helps scientists unravel longstanding questions about what goes on inside our star's outer atmosphere, a region called the corona extending millions of kilometers into space. To do so, Parker Solar Probe will dive through the corona itself, eventually buzzing the Sun's surface by 5.9 million kilometers. That's just an eighth of the distance between the Sun and Mercury at the planet's closest approach.
The mission was previously named Solar Probe Plus. But during an announcement today at the University of Chicago, NASA associate administrator Thomas Zurbuchen said the spacecraft's moniker would be changed to honor Eugene Parker, the scientist who predicted the existence of the solar wind more than 50 years ago.
"NASA has named about 20 spacecraft after distinguished researchers, like Hubble, Chandrasekhar and Fermi," Zurbuchen said. "However, NASA has never named a spacecraft after a researcher during their lifetime."
Parker, who turns 90 next month, was on hand to accept the honor.
"I'm certainly greatly honored to be associated with such a heroic, scientific, space mission, Parker said. "By heroic, of course, I'm referring to the temperature—the thermal radiation from the Sun, and the extreme measures developed to survive that radiation and collect scientific data."
The Sun's atmosphere is weird
Intuitively, we humans know that the closer we get to a heat source, the hotter we get.
The Sun's atmosphere, however, doesn't quite work this way. Scientists call this phenomenon the coronal heating problem.
The surface, called the photosphere, has a temperature of about 6,000 degrees Kelvin. This is where sunspots appear—the dark blobs you can see through a solar telescope.
Next comes the chromosphere. Here, the temperature increases from 6,000 to 20,000 degrees Kelvin in a distance of less than 2,000 kilometers. This is where solar prominences—those massive, looping strands of burning gas—get their start.
Finally, there's the corona, the long, wavy region extending millions of kilometers into space, which you can see during a solar eclipse. The temperature here climbs over a million degrees. This is also where the solar wind—made of high-energy particles responsible for auroras and finicky satellite behavior—blasts away from the Sun at 400 kilometers per hour.
Solar scientists don't quite understand all the mechanisms at play in the corona. How does it get so hot? And what causes the solar wind there to erupt here with such ferocity? These are the questions Parker Solar Probe will try to help answer, by making direct, death-defying measurements of the corona for the first time ever.
The spacecraft
Parker Solar Probe is designed, built and operated by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
The spacecraft weighs 685 kilograms fully fueled, and consists of an instrument deck and large carbon composite heat shield. The 11.5-centimeter-thick heat shield will protect Parker Solar Probe from the 1,700-degree-Kelvin temperatures it will encounter during its coronal dives, keeping the bulk of the spacecraft at room temperature.
There are four science instruments:
FIELDS, University of California, Berkeley
FIELDS is a set of antennas and magnetometers designed to measure electric and magnetic fields. There are four antennas extending out away from the heat shield, and two magnetometers dangling off the back of the spacecraft.
IS☉IS, Southwest Research Institute / Princeton University
The IS☉IS experiment has the fanciest acronym. It stands for Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun, and that little circled dot is the astronomical symbol for our Sun. (The unicode symbol for this character, if you're wondering, is 2609.)
IS☉IS is bolted to the side of the spacecraft, behind the heat shield, and measures high-energy electrons, protons and heavy ions streaming from the sun.
WISPR, Naval Research Laboratory
WISPR, the Wide-field Imager for Solar PRobe, is a set of two telescopes used to image the corona, inner heliosphere, and solar wind. The instrument is mounted behind the heat shield.
SWEAP, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory / University of Michigan
SWEAP stands for the Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons investigation. It is actually three instruments—one of which pokes out from behind the heat shield—used to count electrons, protons and helium ions, and measure their velocities, densities and temperatures.
The need for speed
Earth orbits the Sun at a speed of about 30 kilometers per second. To spiral inward towards the Sun, Parker Solar Probe will have to cancel some of that momentum, which requires a big change in velocity, and a big rocket—the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy.
To escape Earth's gravitational pull, you need a relative velocity of about 11.2 kilometers per second. New Horizons, the current escape velocity champion, left for Pluto traveling 16 kilometers per second. Parker Solar Probe's escape velocity won't top that of New Horizons—it will only be as high as 12.4 kilometers per second, depending on when in the 20-day window the mission launches.
In terms of speed relative to the Sun, Parker Solar Probe will set some records. The Helios I and II probes reached sun-centric speeds of more than 70 kilometers per hour. At closest approach, Parker Solar Probe will almost triple that velocity, hauling through the corona at about 200 kilometers per hour.
The spacecraft will fly around the Sun in an elliptical orbit, picking up tremendous amounts of speed during close approaches, which last about 11 days. The remainder of the orbits will vary between 77 and 158 days. Here's a handy diagram:
Twenty-four orbits are planned. During seven of those (including the first), Parker Solar Probe will swing past Venus to refine its trajectory. The mission design is similar to that of Cassini, which uses an elliptical orbit and occasional gravity assists from Titan. Parker Solar Probe, if successful, will operate for 6 years and 11 months, ending its mission in 2025.
Let's Change the World
Become a member of The Planetary Society and together we will create the future of space exploration.
The Planetary Fund
Support enables our dedicated journalists to research deeply and bring you original space exploration articles.
from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/2rkF3mN
via IFTTT
Reusing Old Dragons
SpaceX set to join rare company by re-flying an orbital spacecraft, Ars Technica
"Although the company has never placed a hard dollar value on the Dragon, the savings could be considerable. SpaceX received a contract worth $1.6 billion from NASA for 12 cargo supply missions to the station in 2008--about $130 million per flight. That would have included the cost of the booster, of course, so therefore an individual Dragon spacecraft is likely valued at between $20 million to $60 million."
from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/2secdoj
via IFTTT
ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/30/2017
May 31, 2017 at 12:00AM
from NASA http://ift.tt/2qAXSki
via IFTTT
2017年5月30日 星期二
Dawn Journal: Adaptations
Marc Rayman • May 30, 2017
Dawn Journal: Adaptations
Dawn’t Be Despondawnt, Dear Readers,
On the other side of the solar system, invisible by virtue both of the blinding glare of the sun and by the vastness of the distance, Dawn is continuing its remarkable cosmic adventure. Orbiting high above dwarf planet Ceres, the spacecraft is healthy and performing all of its assignments successfully even when confronted with what appears to be adversity.
In the last four Dawn Journals, we described the ambitious plans to maneuver the craft so it would cross the line from the sun to Ceres on April 29 and take pictures plus infrared and visible spectra from that special perspective. With Dawn between the sun and Ceres, the alignment is known as opposition, because from the spacecraft’s point of view, Ceres is opposite the sun.
As explained in March, those opposition measurements may provide clues to the nature of the material on the ground with much greater detail than the camera or other sensors could ever discern from orbit. The veteran explorer carried out its complex tasks admirably, and scientists are overjoyed with the quality of the data.
The flight team had worked out a plan to provide a backup opportunity to study Ceres at opposition on June 28. The results of the April 29 observations are so good, however, that the backup was deemed unnecessary and so has been canceled. In this phase of Dawn’s mission, the highest priority continues to be recording cosmic rays so scientists can improve their measurements of the atomic constituents down to about a yard (meter) underground.
Dawn’s latest success followed less than a week after what might have seemed to some people to be a very serious problem. Indeed, in other circumstances, it could have been devastating to the mission. Fortunately, the expert team piloting this spaceship was well prepared to steer clear of any dire scenarios.
On April 23, reaction wheel #1 failed. This was Dawn’s third incident of losing a reaction wheel. (In full disclosure, the units aren’t actually lost. We know precisely where they are. But given that they stopped functioning, they might as well be elsewhere in the universe; they don’t do Dawn any good.) Reaction wheels are disks that spin to help control the orientation of the spacecraft, somewhat like gyroscopes. By electrically changing a wheel’s speed (as high as 75 revolutions per second), the spacecraft can turn or hold steady.
We have discussed Dawn’s reaction wheels many times, and reaction wheel enthusiasts are encouraged to review the detailed history by rereading the last 275,000 words posted. But because this is the last time we will ever need to discuss them, we will summarize the entire story to its conclusion here.
The wheels do not help propel Dawn through space. The ion propulsion system does that (and, by the way, does it amazingly well). The wheels are used to rotate the spacecraft around its three axes, which can be called pitch, roll and yaw; x, y and z; left-right, front-back and up-down; Kirk, Spock and McCoy; animal, vegetable and mineral; or many other names. Regardless of the designations, three wheels are needed because there are three dimensions of space. Always conservative, designers equipped Dawn with four wheels. On a nearly decade-long interplanetary odyssey to well over one million times farther from Earth than astronauts can travel, the probe was designed with enough spare hardware to tolerate the loss of almost any component, including a reaction wheel. (The spacecraft is also outfitted with a backup radio receiver, radio transmitter, central computer, ion engine, camera, heaters, valves and on and on.)
One reaction wheel failed in June 2010, about a year before Dawn arrived at its first destination, Vesta, the second largest body orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter. A second one failed in August 2012 as Dawn was escaping from Vesta, having far surpassed its objectives in exploring the protoplanet. (That second failure is so long ago, that now, for half of its time in space, Dawn has not had three operable wheels, despite the intent of its cautious designers.)
The flight team was able to overcome the loss of the two reaction wheels, even though that had never been planned for (nor even considered) when the spacecraft was being designed and built. It required not only a great deal of work but also exceptional ingenuity and diligence. That heroic effort paid off very handsomely in allowing the spacecraft to continue its ambitious deep-space expedition, trekking for 2.5 years from Vesta to Ceres and then conducting a comprehensive study of that dwarf planet, the first one humankind had ever seen. Dawn exceeded all of its goals and successfully concluded its prime mission in June 2016. And even with the malfunctions of two reaction wheels, the team kept the spacecraft so healthy and productive that it is now conducting an extended mission, gathering even more riches at Ceres.
There was no basis for predicting when another wheel would fail, but it was widely considered to be only a matter of time. Because the four wheels are of the same design, and some had failed on other spacecraft as well, confidence that the two remaining wheels would function for long was low. Indeed, your faithful correspondent, in his technical role on Dawn, occasionally referred to the "two failed wheels and two doomed wheels."
When the spacecraft reported on April 24 that another wheel had failed, no one on the team was very surprised. In fact, the biggest surprise was that the two doomed wheels had continued to operate as long as they did after the other two stopped.
The strategy for recovering from each of the two earlier failures and preparing for another was complex and multifaceted. Let’s recall just a few aspects.
Dawn carries a small supply of conventional rocket propellant called hydrazine, expelled from small jets of the reaction control system. (Yes, Dawn has a full set of backup jets.) The reaction wheels occasionally need a little bit of hydrazine help, and that is why the reaction control system is onboard. (For propulsion, it is far less efficient than the ion propulsion system, and Dawn has never used hydrazine for that purpose.) In principle, the reaction control system could do the job of the reaction wheels, but that would require a great deal more hydrazine than Dawn carried when it left Earth. Indeed, the reason for reaction wheels is that they control the orientation for much less mass. Well, to be more precise, they control the orientation when they work. When they fail, they don’t do as well. The flight team invested a tremendous effort in stretching the hydrazine so it could be used in place of the wheels, and that has proven to be extremely successful. In fact, Dawn arrived at Ceres ready to complete its mission here with zero wheels in case a third wheel was on the verge of failing.
The amount of hydrazine Dawn uses depends on its activities. Whenever it fires an ion engine, the engine controls two of the three axes, significantly reducing the consumption of hydrazine. In orbit around Vesta and Ceres, the probe often trains its sensors on the alien landscapes beneath it. The lower the orbital altitude, the faster the orbital velocity, so Dawn needs to turn faster to keep the ground in its sights. Also, the gravitational attraction of these massive worlds tends to tug on the unusually large solar arrays in a way that would turn the ship in an unwanted direction. (For more on this, see here.) That force is stronger at lower altitude, so Dawn needs to work harder to counter it. The consequence is that Dawn uses more hydrazine in orbit around Vesta and Ceres than when it is journeying between worlds, orbiting the sun and maneuvering with its ion engine. And it uses more hydrazine in lower orbits than in higher ones. Following the first reaction wheel problem, mission controllers decided to hold the wheels in reserve for the times that they would be most valuable in offsetting hydrazine use.
From August 2010 to May 2011, the spacecraft flew with the one failed wheel and the three healthy (but doomed) wheels all turned off. As it approached Vesta, controllers reactivated the three wheels, and they served well for almost all of Dawn’s work there. The second malfunction occurred in August 2012 as Dawn was ascending on its departure spiral, and the spacecraft correctly deactivated all of them and reverted to hydrazine control even before radioing the news to distant Earth. The wheels had been scheduled to be turned off again shortly after Dawn pulled free of Vesta, so the team decided to leave them off then and complete the escape without reaction wheels. They were not used again (except for four brief periods) until 1.2 billion miles (1.9 billion kilometers) later, in December 2015, when Dawn reached its lowest altitude orbit around Ceres.
At Ceres, of course, only two reaction wheels were operable, and Dawn was not designed to use fewer than three. But the day after the first reaction wheel problem occurred in 2010, engineers at JPL and Orbital ATK (back then, it was Orbital Sciences Corporation) began preparing for another failure. They started working on a method to control the orientation with two wheels plus hydrazine, a combination known as hybrid control. That would consume less hydrazine than using no wheels, although more than if three wheels were available. Following an unusually rapid development of such complex software for a probe in deep space, the team installed the new capability in Dawn’s central computer in April 2011, shortly before Vesta operations began. That software performed flawlessly from December 2015 until the third reaction wheel failed last month.
The team determined in 2010 that the benefits of operating the spacecraft with only one wheel would not justify the investment of effort required. So now that three have failed, the last operable wheel is turned off, and it will never be used again. But as we saw above, the team has a great deal of experience flying Dawn with no wheels at all. They had piloted the ship in that configuration through the solar system and around Ceres for a total of four years, so they were well prepared to continue.
With the third wheel failure, we can be grateful that each wheel provided as much benefit as it did. The wheels allowed Dawn to conduct extremely valuable work while using the hydrazine very sparingly. Now that we are finished with the wheels, the members of the flight team are not despondent, dear reader, and you shouldn’t be either. Dawn can continue to operate until the hydrazine is depleted or some unforeseen problem arises. But risks are the nature of venturing into the forbidding depths of space. For now, Dawn has life left in it. Next month we will describe the plans for using the remaining hydrazine.
Less than a week after the third reaction wheel failed, Dawn performed perfectly in collecting all of the planned pictures (using both the primary camera and the backup camera) as well as visible spectra and infrared spectra at opposition. Reaching that special position on the line from the sun to Ceres required two months of intricate maneuvers. By coincidence, another special alignment occurs very soon. This one is called conjunction.
Earth and Ceres follow independent orbits around the sun. Earth carries with it the moon and thousands of artificial satellites. The dwarf planet has one companion, a native of Earth, a temporary resident of Vesta and a resident of Ceres since March 2015.
Because Earth is closer to the sun than Ceres, it is bound by a stronger gravitational leash and so circles faster. Early next month, their separate orbital paths will bring them to opposite sides of the sun. From the terrestrial perspective (shared by some readers, perhaps even including you), the sun and Ceres will appear to be at the same location in the sky. This is conjunction.
Communicating with distant interplanetary spacecraft is not easy. (Surprise!) It is even more difficult near conjunction, when the radio signals between Earth and the spacecraft travel close to the sun on their way. The solar environment is fierce indeed, and the stormy plasma that surrounds the star interferes with the radio waves, like hot, turbulent air making light shimmer. Communications will be unreliable from May 31 to June 12. Even though some signals may get through, mission controllers can’t count on hearing from the spacecraft or contacting it. But they are confident the stalwart ship will manage on its own, executing the instructions transmitted to it beforehand and handling any problems until Earth and Ceres are better positioned for engineers to provide any help. Occasionally Deep Space Network antennas, pointing near the sun, will listen amid the roaring solar noise for Dawn’s faint whisper, but receiving any crackling messages will simply be a bonus. In essence, conjunction means radio silence.
Dawn’s proximity to the sun presents a convenient opportunity for terrestrial observers to locate Dawn in the sky. On June 5-6, it will be less than one solar diameter from the sun. Ceres does not orbit the sun in the same plane as Earth, so it does not always go directly behind the disk of the sun. The spacecraft and dwarf planet will be a little bit south of the sun.
If you hold three fingers (preferably your own) together at arm’s length and block the sun any time from June 1 to 10 (and you are encouraged to do so), you will also cover Dawn. From June 3 to June 8, you can cover the dazzling celestial signpost and Dawn at the same time with your thumb.
Dawn is very big for an interplanetary spacecraft (or for an otherworldly dragonfly, for that matter), with a wingspan of nearly 65 feet (19.7 meters). However, it will be 346 million miles (557 million kilometers) away during conjunction, more than 3.7 times as far as the sun.
Those who lack the requisite superhuman (or even supertelescopic) vision to discern the fantastically remote spacecraft through the blinding light of the sun needn’t worry. We can overcome the limitation of our visual acuity with our passion for exploring the cosmos and our burning desire for bold adventures far from home. For this alignment is a fitting occasion to reflect once again upon missions deep into space.
There, in that direction, is Earth’s faraway emissary to alien worlds. You can point right to where it is. Dawn has traveled more than 3.8 billion miles (6.1 billion kilometers) on a remarkable odyssey. It is the product of creatures fortunate enough to be able to combine their powerful curiosity about the workings of the cosmos with their impressive abilities to wonder, investigate, and ultimately understand. While its builders remain in the vicinity of the planet upon which they evolved, their robotic ambassador now is passing on the far side of the extraordinarily distant sun.
The sun!
This is the same sun that is more than 100 times the diameter of Earth and a third of a million times its mass. This is the same sun that has been the unchallenged master of our solar system for more than 4.5 billion years. This is the same sun that has shone down on Earth all that time and has been the ultimate source of much of the heat, light and other energy upon which residents of the planet have depended. This is the same sun that has so influenced human expression in art, literature, mythology and religion for uncounted millennia. This is the same sun that has motivated impressive scientific studies for centuries. This is the same sun that is our signpost in the Milky Way galaxy. Daring and noble missions like Dawn transport all of us well beyond it.
Dawn is 31,600 miles (50,800 kilometers) from Ceres. It is also 3.72 AU (346 million miles, or 557 million kilometers) from Earth, or 1,555 times as far as the moon and 3.68 times as far as the sun today. Radio signals, traveling at the universal limit of the speed of light, take one hour and two minutes to make the round trip.
Dr. Marc D. Rayman
5:00 p.m. PDT May 24, 2017
Let's Change the World
Become a member of The Planetary Society and together we will create the future of space exploration.
The Planetary Fund
Support enables our dedicated journalists to research deeply and bring you original space exploration articles.
from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/2r8qoMY
via IFTTT
Michael A'Hearn
via Planetary Exploration Newsletter: Mike passed away on Monday, May 29, 2017, at his home in University Park, MD. He had a deep love of science and gregarious nature, always able to make a positive difference in whatever he did. An obituary will be forthcoming. Mike was the beloved husband of Maxine C. A'Hearn; father of Brian J. (Zlata) of Oxford, UK, Kevin P. (Kanlayane) of Vienna, VA, and Patrick N. A'Hearn of Seattle, WA; grandfather of Sean, Brendan, Marie, Eliane, and Gabriel.
from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/2qCZs4o
via IFTTT
NASA to Announce New Astronaut Class on June 7
May 30, 2017
from NASA http://ift.tt/2qwtgEU
via IFTTT
Space Station's EarthKAM Sees the Grand Canyon
ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/29/2017
May 30, 2017 at 12:00AM
from NASA http://ift.tt/2rfnmF9
via IFTTT
2017年5月29日 星期一
Matt Isakowitz
"Matthew found inspiration in Carl Sagan's words, "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." Matthew's invaluable contributions to the field of commercial spaceflight included working at Astranis, Planetary Resources, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, Space Adventures, SpaceX, and the XPRIZE Foundation. He was loved by so many and will be greatly missed."
Keith's note: I am just startled and shattered by this. Matt was everything you wanted in a space explorer and crammed so much into his all too short life. He was smart, bubbling with enthusiasm, and always ready to tackle a new challenge. I first met Matt in May 2002 at the AIA rocket launch competition here in Virginia. I went to hear Sean O'Keefe officiate at the competition - his father Steve worked for O'Keefe at the time. I first saw Matt when I spotted his father with several kids in tow. Due to the recent rain we were all covered in mud to some extent. Matt was still a young boy and I recall that he was clearly excited by all of the rocket launches he was seeing. Over the years I'd see Matt regularly and watched him become quite the space professional. Despite his age, he was fun to debate issues with since he actually knew what he was talking about. I do not know what happened. Matt was one of those people whose accomplishments I had expected to read about in my old age. Ad Astra.
Matthew S. Isakowitz,(blog)
from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/2qzsnpS
via IFTTT
2017年5月28日 星期日
Beneath Jupiter
2017年5月27日 星期六
FWIW NASA Does Not Pay People To Smoke Marijuana
NASA Won't Pay You to Smoke Weed
"Q: Does NASA pay $18,000 for people to stay in bed and smoke weed for 70 straight days?
A: No. NASA conducts bed-rest studies, but it does not allow participants to smoke marijuana or even drink alcohol."
Facebook users flagged a story with the captivating headline "NASA Will Pay You $18,000 To Stay In Bed And Smoke Weed For 70 Straight Days." Don't get too excited. It's false."
from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/2qtYIhW
via IFTTT
2017年5月26日 星期五
The Planetary Society’s Canadian Initiative
Kate Howells • May 26, 2017
The Planetary Society’s Canadian Initiative
It’s an exciting time for Canada in space.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is en route to the asteroid Bennu, carrying the Canadian laser altimeter instrument. Next year, Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques will begin a six-month mission on the International Space Station. And a 2018 launch is planned for the ambitious James Webb Space Telescope, a collaborative mission between the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, NASA, and others.
It’s also an exciting time for Canadian space advocacy.
The federal government established a new Space Advisory Board this year to consult with various stakeholders and guide the nation’s space program. The government also sought public input on their Innovation Agenda and budgetary priorities, with widespread input from the space sector. And last year the Canadian space community came together in Ottawa for the first Canadian Space Policy Symposium, where representatives from academia, industry and the nonprofit sector shared ideas, challenges, and perspectives on Canadian space policy.
In all of these initiatives, The Planetary Society has had a seat at the table.
Throughout the Society’s history we have had a large number of members and supporters in Canada, and over the past few years we have deepened our involvement here. Through outreach, presentations, conversations and partnerships, The Planetary Society has established itself as an active member of the Canadian space community.
As our presence in Canada continues to grow, we are proud to share with our Canadian members the opportunity to engage in and support outreach and advocacy work here at home.
For the time being, our advocacy efforts in Canada focus on where we see the greatest need, and this is the Canadian Space Agency’s lack of an Education and Public Outreach (EPO) program. “Inspiring Canadians” is one of the central pillars of the Canadian Space Policy Framework, and yet the Agency’s EPO department was eliminated in 2012 and has never been restored.
When the government’s Space Advisory Board invited The Planetary Society to participate in a roundtable discussion of the future of Canada’s space program, our message focused on advocating for a renewed national effort to educate and inspire Canadians of all ages about space. This is the first step toward having a public that is supportive of space exploration spending, and will shape the next generation of explorers.
And we practice what we preach; The Planetary Society supports volunteers who conduct educational outreach activities across Canada. We have outreach coordinators in Victoria, Vancouver, London, Hamilton, Toronto, Waterloo and Montreal, who share space exploration with their communities. And we are always looking to engage with other talented volunteers across the country. We are also working to expand our outreach activities through collaborative partnerships with the amazing educational organizations that are active in Canada.
As Canada’s space program evolves, so too will our advocacy initiatives. We will seek opportunities to engage our members in Canada like we do in the United States, empowering you to shape space policy. In the meantime, I invite any Canadian who wants to get more involved to contact me at kate.howells@planetary.org.
Together, The Planetary Society can enact real change in Canada, and help further the exploration of the cosmos.
Onward,
Kate Howells
National Coordinator for Canada
Global Community Outreach Manager
The Planetary Society
Let's Change the World
Become a member of The Planetary Society and together we will create the future of space exploration.
The Planetary Fund
Support enables our dedicated journalists to research deeply and bring you original space exploration articles.
from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/2r5LBYa
via IFTTT
NASA to Make Announcement About First Mission to Touch Sun
May 26, 2017
from NASA http://ift.tt/2rYtIJ0
via IFTTT
Close-up View of Neutron Star Mission's X-Ray Concentrator Optics
ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/25/2017
May 26, 2017 at 12:00AM
from NASA http://ift.tt/2r47aq3
via IFTTT
2017年5月25日 星期四
Spiral Galaxy NGC 6744
NASA to Air Launch of Next International Space Station Resupply Mission
May 25, 2017
from NASA http://ift.tt/2qhh0YL
via IFTTT
Sequence of Juno Spacecraft's Close Approach to Jupiter
A Whole New Jupiter: First Science Results from NASA’s Juno Mission
May 25, 2017
from NASA http://ift.tt/2rlDbgp
via IFTTT
James Webb Space Telescope Available for Media Viewing at NASA’s Johnson Space Center
May 24, 2017
from NASA http://ift.tt/2qTmHLa
via IFTTT
ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/24/2017
May 25, 2017 at 12:00AM
from NASA http://ift.tt/2rDt9H4
via IFTTT
First Rocket Lab Launch Almost Reaches Orbit
Rocket Lab Conducts Successful Flight Test (with videos)
"Rocket Lab broke new ground today when its Electron rocket reached space at 16:23 NZST. Electron lifted-off at 16:20 NZST from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. It was the first orbital-class rocket launched from from a private launch site in the world. "It was a great flight. We had a great first stage burn, stage separation, second stage ignition and fairing separation. We didn't quite reach orbit and we'll be investigating why, however reaching space in our first test puts us in an incredibly strong position to accelerate the commercial phase of our programme, deliver our customers to orbit and make space open for business," says Beck."
from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/2rTZoyW
via IFTTT
Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos: Waltzing Through the Universe
Adam Block • May 25, 2017
Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos: Waltzing Through the Universe
This image represents a mixture of awe, patience, and happiness:
I chose to work on this galaxy because I was playing the cosmic lottery. I am part of a group that is looking for tidal star streams surrounding nearby spiral galaxies. I had a "feeling" that this particular galaxy fit the type—but I had no way to know for certain.
Shown here are two streams (likely part of the same structure/process) associated with NGC 3614. They are very faint and I hope you can see them on your monitor. At more than 100 million light years away this galaxy is one of the farther examples in the ever expanding catalog of similar galactic events being studied by Dr. David Delgado and his Stellar Tidal Stream Survey. On the left you can see the small galaxy that is likely leaving behind some of the stars.
So I was awestruck when I saw it in my data two years ago! It is a special feeling to make astronomy a livelihood and contribute to science while simultaneously getting the thrill of discovery. The delay in the release of the image was to allow Dr. Delgado and his group the opportunity to model the system and include it in a research paper (to be published very soon). That took a bit of patience on my part, but the happiness never waned and I am pleased to share my little pursuit with you today.
Be sure to click on the image above for the large version to scroll around and see the rest of the background universe.
In mid-March, I was fortunate to be able to release my latest image of vdB 31 at a conference in Linz, Austria. This object seems particularly well-suited for the event and place:
"Danube so blue,
so bright and blue,
through vale and field
you flow so calm,
our Vienna greets you,
your silver stream
through all the lands
you merry the heart
with your beautiful shores."
Not only are the words fitting with the nebula's beautiful blue flowing streamers, but perhaps if you listen closely you can hear the music as brilliant AB Auriga seems to "waltz" through the veil of dust. This image was also published as an APOD on March 11th, 2017.
Here are some delicate spiral galaxies are found on the outskirts of the Coma Cluster:
These denizens of the myriad members of the cluster live on the periphery—far from the monstrous ellipticals that have formed in the center. Frequent galaxy interactions and collisions shred the delicate spiral structures of galaxies like NGC 4921 and create more amorphous members.
First be certain to click on the image above for the full field at the best resolution. Don't get lost in galaxies! You might also refer to the older image of the center of the cluster below. If you compare the two images, you can see the overlap between them (top of the new one is the left side of the older central image).
Here is a field filled with galaxies in various states cosmic dance:
NGC 125 near the bottom has a terrific loop: a star stream formed from an encounter with a smaller galaxy. NGC 128 to the upper left shows the process currently unfolding with the dismantling of a smaller galaxy (NGC 127) whose trailing debris of gas and dust is seen in the foreground of the more massive galaxy. In addition NGC 128 is a barred spiral galaxy as given away by the characteristic and distinctive "X" shape of the nucleus. Our own Milky Way galaxy is a barred spiral as well and we can even see our own "X" on the sky (see here).
Be certain to click on the link that shows the full resolution to enjoy the myriad other galaxies—many of which are also interacting (dancing). The negative view below shows some of the tidal tails of the interactions. The foreground bright galaxies are roughly 200 million light years away. Let your mind ponder the distances to some of the background galaxies you find!
Let's Change the World
Become a member of The Planetary Society and together we will create the future of space exploration.
The Planetary Fund
Support enables our dedicated journalists to research deeply and bring you original space exploration articles.
from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/2qfmy5X
via IFTTT