2001 Mars Odyssey Updates

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Mars 4 Orbiter | 3MS No.52S

Mars 4 Orbiter

Mars 3MS No.52S alternatively called Mars 4 Orbiter was a soviet spacecraft intended to explore Mars in early 1973. Mars 4 was intended to enter mars orbit around 1974.But the computer problems prevented the orbital insertion.This spacecraft was built by Lavochkin. Mars 4 was the first two 3MS spacecraft launched to Mars in 1973. Other launches in the same window was Kosmos 419 orbiter, 3MP Mars 6, 3MP Mars 7.It carried an array of instruments to study Mars.Some of the Mars 4 instruments were:

 INSTRUMENTS CARRIED:

• Mars Camera
• Radio Telescope
• IR Radiometer
• Multiple photometer
• Polarimeters
• Magnetometer
• Plasma Traps
• Electrostatic Analyser
• Gamma-ray Spectrometer
• Radio-probe

OPERATION:

Proton-K Carrying Mars-4

   Mars 4 was carried by Proton-K rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 19:30:59 UTC on 21st July 1973. First three stages of Proton-K successfully placed Mars-4 in low earth orbit. Fourth Stage (Block-D) placed Mars-4 into heliocentric orbit. But during the manoevres course correction on 30th July 1973, two on board computers failed which results in the failure of orbital entry. Several Earlier missions of Russia (Roscosmos) results in failure of missions starting from Mars 1M No.1, 1M No.2, 2MV-4 No.1, 2MV-4 No.2 (Mars 1), 2MV-3 No.1, 2M No.521, 2M No.522, Kosmos 419 (3MS No.170), Mars 2 lander and Prop-M Rover. Only Mars2 was mostly successful.

 

MISSION OUTCOMES:

• A small amount of data was collected during close approach on 10th February 1974 (1,844 kilometers)
• The Mission failed because it failed to perform orbital insertion.

 

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Abel-370 Galaxy Cluster

     NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the Abel-370 containing Vast and more number of Galaxies.All the galaxy guards the sky like the Guardian of the galaxy, an upcoming film.This image is taken with the combination of visible and near infrared light. All the objects are in cluster and having rich mix galaxy shapes.Abel-370 is located 4 billion light years from the constellation Cetus.

Image Credit: NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

For More Information: Click Hubble New Release

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Astronomers Spotted a New Black Hole

Image shows the disappearance of Star forming Black Hole

      Astronomers have watched a birth of new black hole. These observations made through Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. The spotted star became a black hole instead of going to supernova state. Most of the star form black hole after a stage of supernova, but this star was strange and faded directly to a black hole. This was discovered by a group of astronomers from Ohio state university and the Ohio Eminent Scholar in Observational Cosmology.

As many as 30 percent of such stars, it seems, may quietly collapse into black holes and no supernova required. Kochanek explained that they don't see supernova from most massive stars. This star named NGC-6946 is 23 times larger than Sun located in a Spiral Galaxy which is 22 million light years away. And it was nick named "Fireworks Galaxy" because supernova frequently happens there. Observation starting from 2009 of this star named N6946-BH1, began to brighten weakly. By 2015, it appeared to have winked out of existence.

Star N6946-BH1 transformation to a Black Hole

After a clear reference, the researchers concluded that the stars must have become a black hole. N6946-BH1 is only likely failed supernova that they found in first seven years of survey. During that period, six-normal supernovas  have occurred within the Galaxies. They have been monitoring and suggesting that 10 to 30 percent of massive stars die as failed supernova.

Credit : ESA/NASA, Kochanek and Ohio State University, United States.

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New Horizons Team to look a New Target Flyby

     NASA's First Pluto Flyby New Horizon will race past a small Kuiper belt object known as MU69 which is 4 billion miles from Earth.It is first spacecraft ever to reach farthest object. But over next six weeks, the New Horizons mission team gets an MU69 preview of sorts and a chance to gather some critical encounter-planning information, with a rare look at their target object from Earth. On 3rd June 2017, and then again on 10th July 2017, MU69 will occult - or block light from three different stars, one on each date. To observe June 3 Stellar Occultation, more than 50 team members and collaborators are deploying along projected viewing paths in Argentina and South Africa. They will fix Camera-equipped portable telescope on the occultation star and watch for the changes in its light that can tell them much more about MU69 itself.

Their primary objective is to determine if there are hazards near MU69 - rings, dust or even satellites - that could affect their flight planning, "said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "But we also expect to learn more about its orbit and possible determine its size and shape. All of that will help their planning effort.

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Schiaparelli Lander Crash - Investigation Report

Schiaparelli Landing Module with Parachute

The inquiry into the crash-landing of the ExoMars Schiaparelli module has concluded that conflicting information in the onboard computer caused the descent sequence to end prematurely.

The Schiaparelli entry, descent and landing demonstrator module separated from its mothership, the Trace Gas Orbiter, as planned on 16 October last year, and coasted towards Mars for three days.

Much of the six minute descent on 19 October went as expected; the module entered the atmosphere correctly, the  sensors in the heat shield collected all the scientific data about the Martian Atmosphere. Telemetry from Schiaparelli was relayed to the main craft, which was entering the orbit around the Red Planet at the same time - the first time this had been achieved in Mars Exploration. This real-time transmission proved invaluable in reconstructing the unfolding chain of events.

At the same time as the orbiter recorded Schiaparelli's transmissions, ESA's Mars Express orbiter also monitored the lander's carrier signal, as did the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in India. In the days and weeks afterwards, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took a number of images identifying the module, the front shield, and the parachute still connected with the back shield, on Mars, very close to the targeted landing site.

The images suggested that these pieces of hardware had separated from the module as expected, although the arrival of Schiaparelli had clearly been at a high speed, with debris strewn around the impact site. The independent external inquiry, chaired by ESA's Inspector General, has now been completed. It identifies the circumstances and the root causes, and makes general recommendations to avoid such defects and weakness in the future.

• Download Report Summary

Schiaparelli Crash Landing Site

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Cosmic Ray Subsystem

       Cosmic Ray Subsystems is an instrument used in Voyager-1 and Voyager-2 spacecraft of the NASA Voyager program, and it is an experiment to detect cosmic rays. The Cosmic Ray Subsystem includes a (HETS), (LETS) and (TET). 

• High-Energy Telescope System
• Low-Energy  Telescope System
• The Electron Telescope

These instruments were designed to detect energetic particles and some the requirements were for the instruments to be reliable and to have enough charge resolution.It can also detect energetic particles from Galaxies.As of 2017 CRS is one of the active instruments on Voyager spacecraft, and it described by as being able to detect electrons from 3-110 MeV and cosmic ray nuclei 1-500 MeV/n. All the three systems used solid-state detectors. CRS is one of the five active instruments on both Voyager spacecraft, and its aim is to understand deeper about the solar-wind. Other objectives of study including electrons and nuclei from planetary magnetospheres and from outside the solar system.

INSTRUMENT DETAILS:

Name of Instrument : Cosmic Ray Subsystem

Spacecraft Carried   : Voyager 1 and Voyager 2
Function                    : Detection of cosmic rays
Instrument Status     : Active
Manufacturer            : NASA

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Mission to an Asteroid Metal World

NASA's Artist Concept of Psyche Spacecraft to an Asteroid

 The Psyche mission is a journey to a unique asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid Psyche is unique that it appears to be the exposed nickel-iron core of an early planet, one of the building blocks of our solar system.

The mission is to Analyse the presence of ores, rocky mantles in that Asteroid.This mission is led by Arizona State University, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is responsible for mission management, operations and navigation. The spacecraft's solar-electric propulsion chassis will be built by Space Systems Loral with a payloads.

INSTRUMENTS:

• Imager
• Magnetometer
• Gamma-ray Spectrometer
• X-band Gravity Science Investigation

SCIENCE OBJECTIVES:

•  Determine whether Psyche is a core, or if it is unmelted material
• Determine the relatives ages of regions of Pshyche's Surface
• Determine whether small metal bodies incorporate the same light elements as expected in the Earth's high-pressure core
• Determine whether Psyche was formed under conditions more oxidizing or more reducing than Earth's core
• Characterize Psyche's topography.

MISSION TIMELINE:

Mission Launch        : 2022

Solar Electric Cruise : 4.6 years

Arrival at 16 Psyche  : 2026

Observation Period    : 20 months in orbit

Mission Type            : Orbiter

Status                      : Expected

Mission Goal            : A Metal World

MISSION EVENTS:

2022 - Launch of Psyche

2022 - Psyche spacecraft Earth gravity assist

2023 - Mars Flyby of Psyche spacecraft

2026 - Psyche spacecraft arrives in asteroid's orbit

2026 - 2027 - Psyche spacecraft orbits the Psyche asteroid

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Mars Colour Camera

MARS COLOR CAMERA:

MCC (Mars Color Camera)

     Mars Color Camera (MCC) operates in visible range of 0.4 to 0.7 micrometer and uses RGB pattern. Its IGFOV varies from 19.5 m to 4 km.The detector array has 2048x2048 elements on a pixel pitch of 5.5 micro. The Sensor is driven by a custom built electronics designed around the detector. MCC is among five science payloads onboard MOM. It has 16 different modes of exposures, aimed at imaging the Mars Surface with moderate scientific objectives.

AIMED OBJECTIVES:

• Surface features : To Image the Surface features of Mars with varying resolution and scales using the unique elliptical orbit. This includes the craters, mountains, valleys, sedimentary features, volcanic features, rift valleys, mega faults etc.. on the surface of the Mars
• Methane Source : To map the geological setting of area around Methane sources picked up by the fellow sensor onboard MOM, the MSM (Methane Sensor for Mars) 
• Polar Ice Caps : To map Martian Polar ice Caps and its seasonal variations
• Dust Devils : To monitor dynamic behaviour of the dust devils and dust storms over six months
• Exo-Mars Studies : Besides Mars, there will be attempt for opportunistic imaging of phobos and comet during the elliptical orbit around Mars
• Context Information : One of the most important task of MCC is to provide contextual information for other science payload onboard MOM. This will help interpret the science from the other sensors in a better way. Due to highly dynamic nature of Martian atmosphere and surface, every mission needs to carry its own imaging camera and hence Mars Color Camera.

DATA PRODUCT SCHEMA:

     An MCC image is a Bayer filter mosaic, a color filter array (CFA) for arranging RGB color filters on a square grid of photo sensors. The demosaicing algorithm is employed to reconstruct a full color image. Level-1 product (calibrated data) generation involves detector wise photo response non-uniformity model correction as understood from pre-launch laboratory calibration exercises. line/pixels loss correction and tagging the geographic coordinates to each pixel. level-1 corrected are generated for users. The software pipeline produces calibrated data to generate minimum Planetary Data System (PDS) compliance product.

TESTING: 

The first photograph was taken on 19th November 2013 at 08:20 UTC from an altitude of 67,975 km with 3.5 km spatial resolution, swath 7,240 km and 0.4 msec integration time.

 Another imaging session over the Sahara desert was carried out on 23rd November 2013 at 09:00 UTC from an altitude of 18,746 km. The spatial resolution was 0.91km.

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Scientist Confirmed Orbital Details of Trappist-1

TRAPPIST-1 SYSTEM

    NASA Scientists using Kepler Space Telescope identified a regular pattern around the orbits of planet Trappist-1 and they got solid details about their outer orbit.
      Trappist-1 is only eight percent of mass of our sun, making it cooler and less luminous star. It has Eight planets which orbits around, Three of which are revolving in their Star's Habitable zone, the far distance from the star reasons for the presence of cloud on the surface of rocky planet. This TRAPPIST System is located about 40-light years away from the Aquarius Constellation. This planets and Star is estimated to be between 3 billion to 8 billion years old.This discovery has been possible due to the collaboration and observation between NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, Transisting Planets and Planetesimal Small Telescope in Chile and Ground-Based Telescope.

KEPLER SPACE TELESCOPE

    Astronomers from the University of Washington have used data from the Kepler Spacecraft to confirm that TRAPPIST-1h orbits its star every 19 days. At Six million miles from its cool dwarf star. TRAPPIST is located beyond the outer edge of the habitable zone and likely too cold for life as we know it. The amount of energy of planet h receives from its star is comparable to what the dwarf planet Ceres, located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, gets from our Sun.

Data provided by the Spitzer Telescope, the Trappist team recognized a mathematical pattern i  the frequency at which each of the six innermost planet orbit their star. This complex but predictable pattern called orbital resonance, occurs when planets exert  a  regular, periodic gravitational tug on each other as they orbit the star.

SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE

Using the Spitzer Telescope data, the team calculated the orbital velocity, orbital period of the planet h before the observation of Kepler. The team calculated six possible resonant periods for planet h that would not disrupt the stability of the system, but only one was not ruled out by additional data. The other five possibilities could have been observed in the Spitzer and ground-based data collected by the TRAPPIST team.

All of this, Luger said, "indicates that these orbital relationships were forged early in the life of the TRAPPIST-1 system, during the planet formation process". The resonant structure is no coincidence, and points to an interesting dynamical history in which the planets likely migrated inward in lock-step, said Luger. This makes the system a great laboratory for planet formation and migration theories.

       The Kepler spacecraft started to collect data about TRAPPIST-1 from 15 December 2016 to 4 March 2016 as the part of Second mission, K2. On March 8 the data released for the detailed studies and they predicted the 19-day orbital period.

       TRAPPIST-1 is a seven planet chain of resonances established a record among known planetary systems,  the previous holders being the systems Kepler-80 and Kepler-223 each with four resonant planets.

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

The TRAPPIST-1 system was first discovered in 2016 by the TRAPPIST collaboration, and was thought to have just three planets at that time. Additional planets were found with Spitzer and ground-based telescopes. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope will be able to probe potential atmospheres in further detail.

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Juno Completes Fifth Science Orbit

Image Credit : NASA

          Juno completes its fifth science orbit around Jupiter. It completed on 11.00 pm, May 18. But a close flyby near giant Jupiter clouds was performed on 19 May 2017 at 2.00 a.m. in which the spacecraft was logged 63.5 million miles (3,500 kilometers) around Jupiter.

More Information of Juno available at:

• NASA Juno Mission
• Juno Mission

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Moon Discovery around Third Largest Dwarf Planet

Image Credit: NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope

   NASA's Hubble and two more telescope have found a moon orbiting a third largest dwarf planet cataloged as 2007 OR10. This dwarf planet is located in Kuiper's belt. with this discovery, most of the known dwarf planets in Kuiper belt larger than 600 miles across have companions.These provides answer for how moons formed in young solar system.

    Discovery of satellites around all dwarf planets-except Sedna, reveals that, they were formed 4.6 billion years ago and the collision rate is frequent.The author science paper announcing the discovery of moon around dwarf planet was Csaba Kiss of Konkoly Observatory in Budepest, Hungary. " If there were frequent collisions, it was quite easy to form satellites.

Further Details:

• For details about this moon - Hubble Spot Moon around Dwarf Planet
• Click for more about Hubble Discoveries

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Satellite For Gravitational Waves

       LISA Pathfinder is an ESA mission to detect gravitational waves in space which was launched a year ago on 7 December 2015. LISA is paving the way for future missions by testing the flight in the very concept of gravitational wave detection, it will put two rest masses in near-perfect gravitational free-fall, control and measure their motion with unprecedented accuracy.It uses latest technology to minimize the forces on rest masses and to take accurate measurements.

INSTRUMENTS CARRIED:

• Inertial Sensors
• Laser metrology system
• Drag-free control system
• Ultra precise micro-propulsion system

     These instruments  make this a highly unusual mission. LISA is an ESA mission which also carries NASA Payload.

LATEST NEWS FROM LISA:

On Dec 7 LISA pathfinder extended its mission duration of six months, in which scientist and engineers will put the experiment to its limit and prepare the spacecraft for further future space observation of gravitational waves.  

LISA MISSION's JOINT NATIONS:

• Italy (ASI)
• Germany (DSR)
• United Kingdom (UKSA)
• France (CNES)
• Spain (CDTI)
• Switzerland (SSO)
• Netherlands (SRON)
• United States (DRS)

     Further Details click : LISA Pathfinder Mission 

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Mars 2 Orbiter & Lander | Mars 3 Orbiter & Lander Exclusive Documentary Video

 This documentary video contains explanation and details of Project M71 which consists of Mars 2 Orbiter, Mars 2 Lander and Mars 3 Orbiter and Mars 3 Lander.. Both the Orbiter Mission was successful beaming back 60 images to Earth.

If you like this video, then Like | Share | Comment us for further development.

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Universe is not only Expanding but Accelerating

Image : Astronomers use changes in brightness of Cepheid star to measure distance

Credit : NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope

 

     We know that our universe is expanding every second.In 19th Century Edwin Hubble discovered the rate of expansion of the universe and that was called Hubble Constant, which is essential for determining the age,size and fate of Cosmos. Before the launch of Hubble Space Telescope, the values of astronomical measurement was calculated using Hubble Constant.The age of the Universe was estimated as 10 billion to 20 billion years. But the modern astronomers were able to determine accurate values using Hubble Telescope.[For example: the distance between stars is calculated using brightness of stars]. With Hubble's refined values, the present age of the Universe is 13.8 billion years.

     With all the observations from Hubble and Ground based observation, astronomers have found that the universe is not only Expanding but Accelerating. This new discovery led to won 2011 Noble Prize in Physics.

     Scientists believe that the acceleration may be the cause of "Dark Energy" which is a thought of Anti-gravity. This Anti-gravity pushes the galaxy by stretching space at an increasing pace. Till now Dark energy is an unsolved mystery. Astrophysicist believe that 70% of the Universe is composed of Dark matter which cannot be measured or seen through modern technology. Scientist will get better understanding about the Universe if they solve dark energy mystery. 

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Hydrogen & Helium Atmosphere found in an Exoplanet

     Combining Study of NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope reveals the a planet similar to Neptune (Exoplanet) HAT-P26b's atmosphere contains mostly of hydrogen and helium which is located at a distance of 437 light years away from Earth. This study is one of the detailed study called "Warm Neptune"

     Researchers found that the atmosphere of this Neptune size planet consists of clear clouds and some signature of water, but the planet is not a watered planet. Astronomers are interested to study about this exoplanet, so that they can reveal the birth of planet Neptune and Uranus. The signatures of hydrogen and helium was identified the Infrared Spectroscopy of large wavelength.

     Detailed information of this planet may provide a small clue for the formation and  birth of planets in Our Solar system. The Hubble Space Telescope is collaborative mission between ESA and NASA. And the Spitzer Space Telescope is maintained by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) part of California Institute of Technology. The spacecraft operating system is based of Lookheed Martin Space Systems and the infrared image processing and Analysing center is located at Caltech (NASA/JPL)

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Saturn Rings - Cassini Mission

16.05.2017 IMAGE OF THE DAY - CASSINI:

     Cassini Spacecraft Image of Saturn Ring showing shadows, the shadow grows shorter as the planet moves toward the  northern summer and this will continue till Saturn Solstice May 2017. The Cassini observed that, the lengthening of shadow of Saturn continued till equinox in August 2009 later the shadow has been shrinking. This changes had been noted between Saturn closest approach in 2004 [PIA06077], equinox in August 2009 [PIA11667] and then two years ago in 2015 [PIA20498]

IMAGE AT A DISTANCE: 

     This image was taken with Cassini Wide-angle camera on 3 February 2017 in presence of visible light, this view was taken at a distance of 1.2 million kilometer away from Saturn.

CASSINI MISSION:

     The Cassini mission is a collaborative mission between NASA, ESA [European Space Agency] and Italian Space Agency and JPL [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] division of California Institute of Technology. The Cassini with two Onboard Cameras were assembled in JPL Laboratory.

REFERENCE:

• For More Images of Cassini Mission visit http://www.nasa.gov/cassini

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