MAVEN

Mission Overview:

     MAVEN is expanded as Mars Atmospheric Volatile Evolution Mission, was an American spacecraft launched by National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) to study the Mars atmosphere and evolution of gases. This spacecraft was designed under the supervision of Lockheed Martin.It was launched on 28 November 2013, after the successful launch of Indian Mars Spacecraft Mangalyaan (Mars Orbiter Mission).

Mission Proposal:

      MAVEN mission was originated from American Mars Scout Program. Mission was designed and tested by Lockheed Martin Space Subsystems. After the completion of spacecraft, it arrived Kennedy Space Center for launch in August of 2013. But the launch was delayed due to down of the government. Finally it was scheduled to launch in 28 November 2013.Maven is similar to previous Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey.

Start of Mission:

      Mars Atmospheric Volatile Evolution Mission was started with the successful launch on 28 November. After a 10 month journey to mars Maven entered the martian orbit on 22 September 2014 at 02:24 UTC.

Objectives:

   There are four primary objectives of the spacecraft are

• To measure - how much volatile compounds is escaped from Martian atmosphere to space
• To measure the rate of escaping atmosphere into space
• To report the current status of martian upper atmosphere, ionosphere and its interactions with solar wind
• To measure the availability of stable isotopes on Mars

  An instrument called Sample Analysis for Mars (SAM) mounted on board of Curiosity Rover will investigate Mars atmosphere from the Gale creator. It will help Maven to interpret upper atmosphere of Mars.

  

Scientific Instruments:

• Particle and Field Package
• Solar wind electron analyser
• Solar wind ion analyser
• Supra-Thermal and Thermal  Ion Composition
• Solar Energetic Particle
• Langmuir Probes and Waves
• Magnetometer

• Remote Sensing package
• Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrometer

• Neutral gas and ion mass spectrometer 

Mission Status:

     Maven is currently in operation and active. its first phase ended in November 2014 and its second science phase started in June of 2015. Maven has enough fuel to extend its mission for next to years and can orbit around mars as orbiter for next 6 years. 

Discoveries:

• On 5 November 2015, Scientists reported that the Solar wind is responsible for the stripping away of Martian Atmosphere
• Mars lost its magnetic shield, because the planetary dynamo is cooled
• It loses water into thin atmosphere by evaporation and the Solar wind splits the water into hydrogen and oxygen.
• Hydrogen gas rises high into the Martian atmosphere due to its lightness and lost to space by several processes.
• The rate of loss of hydrogen into space increases. This was noted from the beginning, when the Maven entered the Martian Orbit.   

Tags:

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter | Mariner 9 | Mars 96 Orbiter | Mars 2 Orbiter | Mariner 8 | Mars 3 Orbiter | Mars 5 Orbiter | Mars Express | Mars 2M No.522 Orbiter | Mars Climate Orbiter | Mars 7 Lander | Prop-M Rover | Zond 2 Flyby | Viking 2 Orbiter | Viking 1 Orbiter | Mariner 6 | Mariner 3 |  Kosmos 419 Orbiter

 

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New Horizons Flyby over Icy Mountains

Majestic Mountains and Icy plains of Pluto Photo : New Horizon Credit: JPL/NASA

Image Description:

     New Horizons spacecraft flyby over southwest highlands of Pluto, these highlands were fully composed of nitrogen ice which was named as Sputnik Planitia. The dark coloured part is terrain Cthulhu Macula with blocky mountains ranges in right of image.

Pluto Flyby:

      New Horizons made flyby over Voyager Terra, Pioneer Terra and bladed terrain of Tartarus Dorsa where you can find deep and wide pits (in eastern hemisphere).

Charon Flyby: (Pluto's Moon)

     New Horizons also made a flyby over Pluto's moon "Charon". It flied over wide Canyon of Serenity Chasma, Dorothy Gale creater and dark polar hood of Mordor Macula. Then its flight turned towards Oz Terra, Vulcan Planum and moated mountains of Clarke Montes.

Videos from New Horizons Flyby:

 

The above videos shows the image captured by New Horizons during its flyby over Pluto and its moon Charon. ( First Video = Pluto Flyby | Second Video = Charon Flyby )

Image Credit : New Horizons | NASA | JPL
Video Credit  : Paul Schenk and John Blackwell of Lunar and Planetary Institute Credits : Paul Schenk and John Blackwell of Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston. 

About New Horizons:

     New Horizons is an interplanetary mission of NASA and the first mission of New Frontiers Program which was launched in 2006 to perform flyby of the dwarf planet Pluto in 2015 as primary mission and its secondary mission was to study Kuiper Belt Objects.

Tags:

 New Horizons to fly MU69 Object | New Horizons to a New Target Flyby |  Saraswathy Cluster discovered by Indian Scientists | Space Cloud | Hidden Galaxy in the Universe | Star Bursts in Space | Spirograph Nebulae | Amazing Discoveries of MAVEN | Energetic Active Black Holes | Magellanic Nebulae 

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ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter | ExoMars TGO

ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter

     ExoMars Trace Gas orbiter is an Euro-Russian spacecraft sent to mars for the investigation of martian atmosphere and to understand about the composition of Methane and other gases in the martian atmosphere. Exomars also aimed for the investigation of biological and geological activity on Mars.

Mission Overview:

       ExoMars is a first mission which is a joint collaboration mission between Roscosmos of Russia and European Space Agency of Europe. This mission consist of an orbiter and a Schiaparelli lander to achieve its goal as of 2017. It carried well designed scientific payloads to search of microbes,bio-molecules,bio-signatures and to trace other gases in the Martian atmosphere. After the successful orbital insertion Schiaparelli lander was crashed on the surface due to the error calculation of inertia. ExoMars was also aimed to act as communication relay between Exomars Rover (going to launch) and American 2020 Rovers.

Mission Proposal:

     ExoMars mission was originated from ESA and NASA's Mars Orbiter Concepts in 2013. Finally Exomars was born out from esa's nexus Aurora program. Now it is a collaborative mission between Russian Space Agency and European Space Agency, it was officially announced on 15 March 2012.It is similar to NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Start of Mission:

     ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter mission was started with its successful launch on 14 March 2016 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazhakhstan at 09:31 UTC. It was carried by Proton rocket (Russian Origin). After burning four stages, proton rocket successfully inserted into orbit and a signal indicating functioning of instruments properly was received at 21:29 UTC.




Status of Mission:

      ExoMars Orbiter is active around mars, but the Schiaparelli lander was crashed after its separation from orbiter on 16 October 2016. Latest updates on ExoMars trace gas orbiter is available at esa portal. One of its part ExoMars 2020 Rover is under development and aimed to launch around 2018 or 2020. ESA's ExoMars Updates.

Scientific Instruments:

• Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery
• Atmospheric Chemistry Suite
• Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System
• Fine Resolution Epithermal Neutron Detection

Technical Details:

• The Solar panels is capable of producing 2000 watt of power.
• ExoMars has Bi-propellant propulsion system producing 424 N of thrust.
• Spacecraft has two Lithium batteries capable of producing 5100 Wh.
• For the communications purposes it uses 65 W X-band system, 3 Low gain antenna, and UHF receivers
• Four Scientific Instruments mentioned above and mission will be end in around 2022

Tags:

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter | Mariner 9 | Mars 96 Orbiter | Mars 2 Orbiter | Mariner 8 | Mars 3 Orbiter | Mars 5 Orbiter | Mars Express | Mars 2M No.522 Orbiter | Mars Climate Orbiter | Mars 7 Lander | Prop-M Rover | Zond 2 Flyby | Viking 2 Orbiter | Viking 1 Orbiter | Mariner 6 | Mariner 3 |  Kosmos 419 Orbiter

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Saraswathy Cluster by Indian Scientists

Saraswathy Cluster discovered by Indian Astronomers

Indian Astronomers have made a significant discovery by identifying extremely large superstar cluster known as Saraswathy cluster which is located in the direction of Constellation Pisces.

This Supercluster is located about 4 billion light years away from our Earth and consists of nearly 43 large galaxies. Indian astronomers named this super-cluster galaxy as "Saraswathy". Scientists predict that this galaxy may have mass equivalent to 20 million billion Suns.

What is Super-Cluster?

     A supercluster is chain of galaxy and a galaxy approximately consisting of ten thousand galaxies and this saraswathy cluster is about 600 million light years stretched over the universe

Discovery:

     This discovery was made by Indian Astronomers from Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) and two other members of Indian Universities. 

Published Journal:

     This amazing discovery is being published in latest isssue of The Astrophysical Journal, the premier research journal of American Astronomical Society.

About Saraswathy Cluster:

     The long cold and dark matter model predict the evolution of the Universe by assembly of all the small structures of galaxies. Most forms of this model do not predict the existence of large structures such as the Saraswathy Cluster with the current age of the universe. The discovery of this super mass cluster force astronomers to think about the evolution and current stage of the universe starting from Big-bang to current stage.

     The supercluster is clearly embedded in a large network of cosmic filaments traced by clusters and large voids. Previously only some of few clusters have been reported. An example for the previously reported cluster is known as Shapley concentration or Sloan Great wall in the nearby universe. From these Saraswathy is most distant one and far too.This research will help to find answers for the unanswered question about the universe of past, when the mysterious dark energy had just started to dominate structure formation. 

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Libya Montes on Mars

Libya Montes on Mars Image Credit: ESA

The colour coded image of highland terrain Lybia Montes on Mars. The coloured image shows various depths and heights of the terrain. Image was taken by ESA's Mars Express (orbiter around Mars) on 21 February 2017.

Colour Code Indicating various heights..

• Red - highest terrain
• Blue - lowest terrain
• Purple - lowest terrain

Libya Montes Image by NASA

About Libya Montes:

      Libya Montes is a highland terrain on Mars which uplifted by a giant Isidis imapact, this spot was once chosen for the landing site of Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander in 1999. This site has oldest rocks on Mars ever and it can provide lots of information about early life and early condition of Mars.After the Isidis impact, it formed by various processes like wind action, surface run-off, fluvial deposits.

Image Details:

Title                            :  Libya Montes Topography

Released date           : 13/07/2017 at 11:00 am

Image ID                     : 380974

Copyright                   : ESA/DLR/Berlin

Image Credit              : European Space Agency
Second Image credit : NASA

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Space Cloud W51

Space Cloud W51

      Chandra X-Ray Space Observatory has spotted a space gas molecular cloud which was named as W51 cloud and it is very closest to our earth. It is something about 17,000 light years far away from us. Its image provides excellent opportunity to study the forming of stars in our Milkyway Galaxy.

Image shows high energy stellar output. The above image is captured after a exposure about 20 hours using chandra x-ray. Similarly Spitzer space telescope also took infrared image of this cloud.The cloud was mostly surrounded by cool materials and vast gas molecules of hydrogen and helium, it may have more gases which stretched over the space.This image cloud consists of million of new stars.

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Juno Flyby near Red Spot of Jupiter

Great Red Spot of Jupiter. Image taken by Cassini Spacecraft 

National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) Juno Spacecraft flied over Jupiter's great Red Spot on 10 July 2017. The above image was taken with Cassini's Narrow Wide Angle Camera on 29 December 2000. Red spot of Jupiter is one of the interesting feature of planet Jupiter to observe.

Robert Hooke and Giovanni Cassini in 17th century discovered the red spot of Jupiter and they suggested that the spot had been existing since four centuries and have persisted for a long period.Scientists suggest that the red spot has been shrinking. In 1979 Voyager spacecraft measured the diameter of red spot was 25000 km, but the modern Hubble Space Telescope image reveals that the red spot is shrunken to 15000 km. The red spot is very cold but have warm cyclone. The cyclone is almost equals to hurricane in our Earth` The reason for the redness of spot is still a mystery. Cyclones mostly consist of inert gases like Hydrogen and Helium. We can find many lightning storms like auroras in the poles.

For More information on Juno is available at https://www.nasa.gov/juno or https://www.missionjuno.org/

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Hubble Hidden Galaxy

Hidden Galaxy Image captured by Hubble Space Telescope

     IC 342 Cluster is a hidden galaxy because it is difficult to see and image. This star cluster or galaxy is located near the equator of our Milkyway galaxy. This cluster has bright glowing gases, brightest stars and dust around it.The galaxy was very much active which wass indicated by colours of stars. Blue colour of stars shows the birth of new stars,red coloured stars shows the hotter stars and some darker regions. In the above image it looks like the brightest galaxy is covered with dark blanket around galaxy. Hubble Astronomers confirmed this core to has specific central region known as Hll nucleus. It mostly consists of ionized hydrogen which is likely to be creating many new stars.

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Hubble Spotted Clumps of New Stars

Clumps of New Star | Image Credit : NASA Hubble Space Telescope

     This image reveals the formation of new stars in galaxy which are spinning each other at a distance of 200 to 300 light year away from Earth. Hubble Space Telescope team were trying to understand the formation of universe with its galaxies and planets. The study of Evolution of universe is a mystery, but still scientists ding their best to understand since decades. Hubble images make the galaxy to shrink to a small size due to its far distance. Shrinking of images hide much details about sky objects. The above image is filtered with modern technologies to achieve image at a greater resolution and this image is 10 times better image than hubble can't achieve itself.

Gravitational lens are very much useful in this case or anything like this. Scientists predict that this galaxy had formed 2.7 billion years after the big bang. Other telescopes will image the red stars like James Webb space telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, Kepler Space Telescope and some ground based observatories. Ground based observatories do not have imaging capability at such a distance defeating the bad weather.

The image of this clumps of new stars was taken and processed with several technologies and the distortion of gravitational lens was removed with programming codes.

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India's GSAT-17 Successfully Launched

GSAT-17 Indian Communication Satellite

GeoStationary Satellite GSAT-17 India's communication satellite successfully launched on 29 June 2017 from Kourou, French Guiana Space Center by Ariane - V238 Rocket. It weighted 3477 kilogram on lift-off and have some payloads,

Special Instruments:

• C- Band
• Extended C - Band
• S - Band
• Meteorological Data Relay

Meteorological data relay for weather and rescue purposes during natural disasters. After successful injection into Geostationary Transfer Orbit, GSAT-17 was fully controlled by Mastet Control Facility at Hassan. This sat will be maneuvered for its position from this center. GSAT-17 was expected to be active for next 15 years ( lifespan).

References:-

• Insat/ Gsat Brochure
• Gsat-17 official webpage

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New Horizons to a New Flyby to MU69 Object

 NASA's New Horizon targets to a next flyby on 1 January 2019 beyond dwarf planet Pluto. It will reach Kupier Belt after successful flyby around Pluto.Horizons aimed to perform flyby around most smallest object in the Kupier Belt which was called MU69. Ground based occultation estimated that the diameter of MU69 will be 20 to 40 kilometer after the discovery of Kupier Belt Objects in 2014.

MU69 occultation will occur on July 10 and 17 July. On 10 July 2017, Nasa's Airborne Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy SOFIA will use its 100 inch powerful telescope to probe the space debris around MU69 object in the Kupier Belt.

On 17 July 2017, Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope will check for the debris around the object MU69 in the same kupier belt. And other than this ground based small fencing telescopes will also check for the debris.

References:

• 10 July 2017 Occultation.
• 17 July 2017 Occultation.
• MU69 Occultation.

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Successful test of Scramjet Engine

Scramjet - Air Breathing Propulsion System. Indian Space Research Organisation successfully tested its experimental launch of air breathing ticket "Scramjet Engine" on 28th August 2016 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikotta. The fight duration was 300 seconds, after its flight it reached Bay of Bengal nearly 320 km from Sriharikotta. It was successfully tracked and recovered during its first flight. Air Breathing Propulsion, holding flame at supersonic speed, ignition of engines, air injection mechanism and fuel intake process was successfully demonstrated by scientists of ISRO.

This engine was designed in such a way, so that it uses Hydrogen as fuel and atmospheric oxygen as oxidizer. This engine get design from ISRO Advanced  Technology Vehicle. This is a short duration experimental launch of Scramjet on March 6. It weighted 3277 kilogram while lift-off.

Tags: SLV, ASLV, PSLV, GSLV, GSLV MARK-II, GSLV-MARK-III

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Viking-2-Orbiter

Viking-2 Orbiter (One of the mission of Viking Program)

    Viking-2 Orbiter is a part of Viking Program and similar to Viking-1-Program  sent to Mars.This mission consist of a Orbiter and a Lander. It was the second landing on the surface of Mars.Viking-2 was launched on 9 September 1975 carried by Titan IIIE Rocket with a launch mass of 1455 kilogram.

MISSION OVERVIEW:

     Viking-2 Orbiter started to beam images of Mars after the successful orbital insertion on 7 August 1976. The lander separated from the orbiter on 3 September 1976 and landed at Utopia Planitia.

RESULTS OF VIKING-2 MISSION:

ORBITER:

• It created an idea for Huge water on Mars
• River Valleys were found in many areas on the surface of Mars
• It discovered flow of water in carved deep valleys, eroded grooves, cracks of bed-rock
• It found Ravi Vallis which formed from catastropic floods came from ground.

LANDER:

• After analysing soil it found the presence of magnesium, aluminium, sulphur, calcium, titanium, strontium and yttrium.
• These minerals were the products of Igneous rocks 
• VIKING-2 BIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT: It consist of instruments like
• Pyrolytic Release Experiment
• Labeled Release Experiment
• Gas Exchange Experiment
• Gas Chromatograph 
• Mass Spectrometer

• Scientists found that Viking Program gave positive results to the search of life, but still it is not confirmed

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Hubble Space Telescope

Hubble Space Telescope to Observe night sky objects from the Space

     Hubble Space Telescope is a American (National Aeronautics Space Administration) space telescope launched into space to observe night sky objects which are invisible from our Earth telescopes. The most largest and versatile among all telescopes is Hubble Space Telescope. Nowadays Hubble plays a major role and a powerful scientific tool for Astronomers in the field of Research and discoveries. Since its launch from 1990 it had made millions of discoveries like Galaxies, Stars, Dual Stars, Gas Nebulae, Exoplanets, Comets, Star clusters, Supernovas, Active Black Holes producing a good quality and high resolution images on computer screen. It helps astronomers to understand the phenomenon and evolution of universe easily.

TELESCOPE IN SPACE:

     On 24th April 1990 NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was parked into Low Earth orbit, which was carried by Space Shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Center of Florida. It took Eight years to construct and complete the Hubble project starting from 1977 to 1985. Hubble was named in the honour of a famous Astronomer Edwin Hubble.

PROPERTIES OF TELESCOPE:

     The telescope basically consist of a mirror reflector of 2.4 meter and imaging instrument which will give astronomers a clear and magnificent view of Universe with greater resolution in the presence of visible, infrared and ultraviolet light. It orbits Earth at a distance of 568 kilometers from Earth.The total cost to complete the Hubble project was $1.5 billion dollars. It has mind-blowing feature to image (Deep Field Image) the sky objects to a distance of 13 billion light years away from our Earth which is impossible to imagine and image through ground based telescopes. 

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE'S INTERESTING FACTS:

•  Hubble Astronomers have published nearly 14,000 scientific papers after 1.3 million observations since its year of launch1990.
• Hubble uses Spinning wheels to change its position by applying Newton's Thrid Law instead of using thrusters
• Hubble has an accuracy point of 0.007 arc seconds and can see objects with an angular size of 0.05 arc seconds.
• It can image and locate objects to a far of more than 13.4 billion light years away from our Earth.
• It had archived more than 140 Terabytes of data by generating 10 Terabytes of New data per year.

 TECHNICAL DETAILS:

• Hubble Telescope has 1.25 MHz DF-224 Processor CPU, it intel based 80486 processor.
• It has Multiple Access Transponder components MAT-1 and MAT-2
• The wide-field camera uses RCA 1802 microprocessor.

INITIAL INSTRUMENTS:

• Planetary Camera
• Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph
• High Speed Photometer
• Faint Object Camera
• Faint Object Spectrograph

HUBBLE INSTRUMENTS:

• Advanced Camera for Surveys
• Cosmic Origins Spectrograph
• Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement
• Faint Object Camera
• Faint Object Spectrograph
• Fine Guidance Sensor
• Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph
• High Speed Photometer
• Near Infrared Camera
• Multiple-Object Spectrometer
• Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph
• Wide Field and Planetary Camera
• Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2
• Wide Field Camera 3

SERVICING MISSIONS:

• Servicing Mission-1 - STS-61 December 1993
• Seven Astronaut in Endeavour replaced High Speed Photometer with COSTAR
• Wide Field Planetary Camera was replaced with Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2
• Solar arrays and electronic components was replaced
• Four Gyroscopes was also replaced and the onboard computers were upgraded to coprocessors  

•  Servicing Mission-2 - STS-82 February 1997
• STIS and NICMOS was replaced and a New Solid State Recorder was mounted

• Servicing Mission-3A - STS-103 December 1999
• Four new gyroscopes were replaced with Fine Guidance Sensor and new computer systems were upgraded with more memory.
• Voltage/Temperature Improvement Kit was replaced with Thermal Insulation Blankets.

• Servicing Mission-3B - STS-109 March 2002
• Fine Guidance Sensors was replaced by the Advanced Camera for Surveys
• Solar panels was replaced for the second time for more power

• Servicing Mission-4 - STS-125 May 2009
•  New Nickel-Hydrogen Battery was installed and also Wide Field Camera 3 and Cosmic Origins Spectrograph

DISCOVERIES:

Eagle Nebulae Image Captured in 2014

Hubble Studies New Frontier's Program

Pismis 24 Star Cluster

Carina Nebulae

 

Hubble Detecting Early Universe with Various Space Telescope and Ground based telescope

FURTHER REFERENCES:

• Hubble Essentials
• Nuts and Bolts
• Hubble Highlights
• Hubble Wesite 

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