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https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/phoenix-landing-events-schedule

Phoenix Landing Events Schedule

This is a list of events during and around the Phoenix landing on Mars.

Unless otherwise noted, the location for news briefings and commentary are NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.Times are Pacific Daylight and some are subject to change.You can watch NASA TV on the web athttp://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/.Thursday, May 22-- News briefing, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.Saturday, May 24-- News briefing, noon-- Trajectory correction maneuver opportunity (TCM6), 7:46 p.m.Sunday, May 25NOTE: The times below for the Phoenix spacecraft events on May 25 are for a nominal scenario. Remaining navigational adjustments before May 25 could shift the times by up to about half a minute. In addition, the times for some events relative to others could vary by several seconds due to variations in the Martian atmosphere and other factors. For some events, a "give or take" range of times is given, covering 99 percent of possible scenarios from the atmospheric entry time. For events at Mars, times are listed in "Earth-receive time" (ERT) rather than "spacecraft event time" (SCET). This means the listed time incorporates the interval necessary for radio signals traveling at the speed of light to reach Earth from Mars. On landing day, May 25, the two planets are 275 million kilometers apart (171 million miles), which means it takes the signal 15 minutes and 20 seconds to reach Earth. For some spacecraft events, engineers will not receive immediate radio confirmation.-- Trajectory correction maneuver opportunity (TCM6X), 8:46 a.m.-- News briefing, noon-- Begin non-commentary live television feed from JPL control room, 3 p.m.-- Begin commentated live television feed from JPL control room, 3:30 p.m.-- Propulsion system pressurization, 4:16 p.m.-- Begin "bent-pipe" relay relay (continuous transmission of Phoenix data as it is received) through NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft to Goldstone, Calif., Deep Space Network station, 4:38 p.m.-- Green Bank, W. Va., radio telescope listening for direct UHF from Phoenix, 4:38 p.m.-- Cruise stage separates, 4:39 p.m.-- Spacecraft turns to attitude for atmospheric entry, 4:40 p.m.-- Spacecraft enters atmosphere, 4:46:33 p.m.-- Likely blackout period as hot plasma surrounds spacecraft, 4:47 through 4:49 p.m.-- Parachute deploys, 4:50:15 p.m., plus or minus about 13 seconds.-- Heat shield jettisoned, 4:50:30 p.m., plus or minus about 13 seconds.-- Legs deploy, 4:50:40 p.m., plus or minus about 13 seconds. -- Radar activated, 4:51:30 p.m.-- Lander separates from backshell, 4:53:09 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.-- Transmission gap during switch to helix antenna 4:53:08 to 4:53:14 p.m.-- Descent thrusters throttle up, 4:53:12 p.m.-- Constant-velocity phase starts, 4:53:34 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.-- Touchdown, 4:53:52 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.-- Lander radio off 4:54:52 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.-- Begin opening solar arrays (during radio silence) 5:13 p.m.-- Begin NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter playback of Phoenix transmissions recorded during entry, descent and landing, 5:28 p.m. However, data for analysis will not be ready until several hours later.-- Begin Europe's Mars Express spacecraft playback of Phoenix transmissions recorded during entry, descent and landing, 5:30 p.m. However, data for analysis will not be ready until several hours later.-- Post-landing poll of subsystem teams about spacecraft status, 5:30 p.m.-- Mars Odyssey "bent-pipe" relay of transmission from Phoenix, with engineering data and possibly including first images, 6:43 to 7:02 p.m. Data could take up to about 30 additional minutes in pipeline before being accessible. If all goes well, live television feed from control room may show first images as they are received. The first images to be taken after landing will be of solar arrays, to check deployment status.-- News briefing, 9 p.m.Monday, May 26-- News briefing, 11 a.m.Tuesday, May 27, through Friday, May 30Daily news briefings at 11 a.m.Anticipated pace of Mars surface operations-- If operations proceed relatively smoothly, the first eight to 10 days after landing will be a "characterization phase" of checking out and understanding the performance of the spacecraft's power and thermal systems, as well as the robotic arm and other instruments.-- At the end of the characterization phase (date tba), the first sample of surface soil will be delivered to the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer onboard Phoenix.-- Analysis of soil from the surface in both the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer and in the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer will likely take 10 to 15 days if all processes go well. After that, each additional sampling cycle will reach a deeper subsurface level, in increments of about two to three centimeters. At each different layer, collecting and analyzing samples is expected to take 10 to 15 days, barring operational difficulties.-- How soon the digging reaches the expected icy layer will depend on how far below the surface that layer lies. Estimates in advance of landing range from two to five centimeters. If the ice is at the deeper end of that range, the first analysis of an icy sample could be in July or later.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/science-team-outlines-goals-for-nasas-2020-mars-rover

Science Team Outlines Goals for NASA's 2020 Mars Rover

A new report provided to NASA details science objectives for the rover the agency will send to Mars in 2020.

WASHINGTON -- The rover NASA will send to Mars in 2020 should look for signs of past life, collect samples for possible future return to Earth, and demonstrate technology for future human exploration of the Red Planet, according to a report provided to the agency.The 154-page document was prepared by the Mars 2020 Science Definition Team, which NASA appointed in January to outline scientific objectives for the mission. The team, composed of 19 scientists and engineers from universities and research organizations, proposed a mission concept that could accomplish several high-priority planetary science goals and be a major step in meeting President Obama's challenge to send humans to Mars in the 2030s."Crafting the science and exploration goals is a crucial milestone in preparing for our next major Mars mission," said John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science in Washington. "The objectives determined by NASA with the input from this team will become the basis later this year for soliciting proposals to provide instruments to be part of the science payload on this exciting step in Mars exploration."NASA will conduct an open competition for the payload and science instruments. They will be placed on a rover similar to Curiosity, which landed on Mars almost a year ago. Using Curiosity's design will help minimize mission costs and risks and deliver a rover that can accomplish the mission objectives.The 2020 mission proposed by the Science Definition Team would build upon the accomplishments of Curiosity and other Mars missions. The Spirit and Opportunity rovers, along with several orbiters, found evidence Mars has a watery history. Curiosity recently confirmed that past environmental conditions on Mars could have supported living microbes. According to the Science Definition Team, looking for signs of past life is the next logical step.The team's report details how the rover would use its instruments for visual, mineralogical and chemical analysis down to microscopic scale to understand the environment around its landing site and identify biosignatures, or features in the rocks and soil that could have been formed biologically."The Mars 2020 mission concept does not presume that life ever existed on Mars," said Jack Mustard, chairman of the Science Definition Team and a professor at the Geological Sciences at Brown University in Providence, R.I. "However, given the recent Curiosity findings, past Martian life seems possible, and we should begin the difficult endeavor of seeking the signs of life. No matter what we learn, we would make significant progress in understanding the circumstances of early life existing on Earth and the possibilities of extraterrestrial life."The measurements needed to explore a site on Mars to interpret ancient habitability and the potential for preserved biosignatures are identical to those needed to select and cache samples for future return to Earth. The Science Definition Team is proposing the rover collect and package as many as 31 samples of rock cores and soil for a later mission to bring back for more definitive analysis in laboratories on Earth. The science conducted by the rover's instruments would expand our knowledge of Mars and provide the context needed to make wise decisions about whether to return the samples to Earth."The Mars 2020 mission will provide a unique capability to address the major questions of habitability and life in the solar system," said Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division in Washington. "This mission represents a major step towards creating high-value sampling and interrogation methods, as part of a broader strategy for sample returns by planetary missions."Samples collected and analyzed by the rover will help inform future human exploration missions to Mars. The rover could make measurements and technology demonstrations to help designers of a human expedition understand any hazards posed by Martian dust and demonstrate how to collect carbon dioxide, which could be a resource for making oxygen and rocket fuel. Improved precision landing technology that enhances the scientific value of robotic missions also will be critical for eventual human exploration on the surface.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages NASA's Mars Exploration Program for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.The complete Science Definition Team report is available online at:http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/m2020/.For more information about NASA's Mars programs, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/mars.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-to-discuss-next-mars-rover-on-facebook-live

NASA to Discuss Next Mars Rover on Facebook Live

NASA will host a Facebook Live event Friday, July 15 at 10 a.m. PDT, about NASA's next Mars rover, Mars 2020, which is moving forward with final design and construction.

NASA will host a Facebook Live event at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT) Friday, July 15, to talk about the science and technology aboard NASA's next Mars rover, Mars 2020, and the significant step the agency is taking on its Journey to Mars, proceeding with final design and construction of the robotic explorer.During the event, viewers will get a glimpse of the Mars Yard and rock drilling facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and can ask questions during the program via Facebook. Media can submit questions by email at: hq-social@nasa.gov.Participants will be:• Kenneth Farley, Mars 2020 project scientist at Caltech in Pasadena• Matt Robinson, Mars 2020 sampling and caching team deputy manager at JPL• Allen Chen, Mars 2020 entry, descent and landing lead at JPLThe event can be viewed live on NASA's Facebook page at:http://www.facebook.com/nasaThe event also will air on NASA Television and stream on the agency's website at:http://www.nasa.gov/nasatvhttp://www.nasa.gov/liveMars 2020, which has just passed a major development milestone, will look for signs of past life in a region of Mars where the ancient environment is believed to have been favorable for microbial life. It will collect samples of Martian rock and soil that a potential future mission could return to Earth for analysis. It also will assess Mars' geology and modern environment, providing context for other investigations. These studies will address high-priority goals for planetary science and further aid NASA's preparations for a human mission to the Red Planet.For more information about NASA's Mars missions, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/journeytomars

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-hosts-media-teleconference-about-black-hole-studies

NASA Hosts Media Teleconference About Black Hole Studies

NASA will host a Feb. 27 news telecon about black hole observations by its NuSTAR telescope and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-ray telescope.

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA will host a news teleconference at 10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST), Wednesday, Feb. 27, to announce black hole observations from its newest X-ray telescope, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-ray telescope.The briefing participants are:-- Fiona Harrison, NuSTAR principal investigator, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.-- Guido Risaliti, astronomer, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass., and the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics-- Arvind Parmar, head of Astrophysics and Fundamental Physics Missions Division, European Space AgencyVisuals will be posted at the start of the teleconference at:http://go.nasa.gov/15eT17V.Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live on NASA's website at:http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio. Audio and visuals will be live athttp://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2.Audio and visuals will be streamed live online at:http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2.For more information about NuSTAR, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/nustar. For more information about the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-ray telescope, visit:http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/XMM-Newton_overview.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-celebrates-international-asteroid-day-with-special-broadcast

NASA Celebrates International Asteroid Day with Special Broadcast

NASA will mark International Asteroid Day Friday, June 30, with a special program on NASA TV and online featuring the agency's work to find and study near-Earth objects.

NASA will mark the worldwide observance of International Asteroid Day at 9 a.m. PDT (noon EDT) Friday, June 30, with a special television program featuring the agency's Planetary Defense Coordination Office and other projects working to find and study near-Earth objects (NEOs). The program will air on NASA Television and the agency'swebsite.Viewers will learn how NASA-funded researchers find, track and characterize NEOs -- asteroids and comets that come within the vicinity of Earth's orbit and could pose an impact hazard to Earth -- and how NASA is working to get our nation prepared to respond to a potential impact threat.The program will include segments on NASA's NEO projects from multiple locations, including the agency's Headquarters in Washington and Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Viewers may submit questions during the program using #AskNASA.The broadcast will be part of a 24-hour Asteroid Day program from Broadcasting Center Europe, beginning at 6 p.m. PDT (9 p.m. June 29 EDT, 1 a.m. June 30 GMT) and streaming online at:https://asteroidday.org/live"At NASA, every day is an asteroid day, but we value the international collaboration for a designated day to call attention to the importance of detecting and tracking hazardous asteroids," said Planetary Defense Officer Lindley Johnson at NASA Headquarters.NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office is responsible for finding, tracking and characterizing potentially hazardous asteroids and comets coming near Earth, issuing warnings about possible impacts, and assisting coordination of U.S. government response planning, should there be an actual impact threat.For more information visit:https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefenseFor asteroid news and updates, follow AsteroidWatch on Twitter:https://www.twitter.com/AsteroidWatch

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-scientist-clears-the-fog-on-gloomy-summers

NASA Scientist Clears the Fog on Gloomy Summers

The word California invokes many images: miles of sunny beaches, streets lined with swaying palm trees, mountains that touch the great blue sky and cold nights filled with thick, dense fog.

The word California invokes many images: miles of sunny beaches, streets lined with swaying palm trees, mountains that touch the great blue sky and cold nights filled with thick, dense fog. What was that? Cold? Fog?Since the "beachgoer's dream" summers that preceded 1998, California has experienced consistently cooler and foggier summers than usual - not exactly grade-A performance for the coast that's supposed to have the most. The question many sun worshipers may be asking is, "Why?""History seems to be repeating itself every 50 years," said Dr. William Patzert, an oceanographer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The weather switches from warmer temperatures, wetter winters and less fog to cooler temperatures, drier winters and more fog, and back and forth."Patzert and colleagues Dr. Steve LaDochy and Jeff Brown from California State University, Los Angeles, studied the factors responsible for variable coastal temperatures and fog frequencies along the southern California coast from 1948 to 2001. They are presenting their findings at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society, being held through February 13 in Long Beach, Calif.From the mid-1940s to the 1970s, temperatures (as measured at Los Angeles International Airport and Los Angeles Civic Center, among other locations) were generally cooler, winters were drier and fog levels were fairly high. In the 1980s and 1990s, temperatures warmed up, winters were wetter and the number of foggy days each year was halved. Now, it seems that since the 1997-98 El Niño, we've returned to the previous prolonged "June Gloom" pattern."'June Gloom,' when unusually heavy coastal fog and cooler temperatures hug the coast, occurs in the early stage of summer," Patzert said. "The dismal weather results from an extreme contrast between warming land and cool ocean temperatures, when the temperature of the land rises quickly, but the temperature of the Pacific Ocean, which covers about one third of the earth's surface, takes longer to heat up. Fog, or vapor condensed into fine particles of water, is basically a set of clouds on the ground produced by this land-sea interaction. During some decades, the large-scale climate shifts in the Pacific Ocean keep the California current ocean temperatures cooler. This gives southern California more heavy fog days. The switch to a warmer pattern results in fewer foggy days."Patzert said studies have shown relationships between sea-surface temperatures in the tropics and weather in the United States, but several other oceanic measurements show even stronger connections to Southern California temperatures. The Pacific Ocean appears to be the most obvious factor affecting coastal temperatures and moisture. By comparing various studies and indexed measurements of Pacific Ocean sea surface temperature variability, Patzert and his colleagues found strong correlations between north Pacific Ocean climate cycles and coastal temperatures and heavy fog frequencies. Warmer eastern tropical Pacific Ocean temperatures, for example, give us less fog. They therefore deduced that large-scale, long-term temperature patterns in the northern and tropical regions of the Pacific Ocean are useful in predicting year-to-year fog conditions.The researchers also found that while fog has been more noticeable during the past four years, heavy fog has declined significantly since 1950, in part because of urban influences. For instance, downtown Los Angeles temperatures have increased by approximately 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) since 1950, and particulate air pollution has declined by about 50 percent. This increase between the land in the Los Angeles basin and Pacific Ocean temperatures could explain the long-term trend in decreasing fog. This also suggests that future urban growth, global climate change and continuing Pacific Ocean cycles may significantly affect future coastal weather in Southern California.Although Patzert forecasts a prolonged "June Gloom" for this summer, he says, "There's no need to escape to the tropics just yet. As with any cloud, there is usually a silver lining. While the past has held a record of long-term gloomy periods, uncharacteristic mood swings have been known to occur on a sporadic basis. Case in point: last month, in the middle of winter, it was warm and clear enough outside for a beach barbecue."The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/orbiter-out-of-precautionary-safe-mode

Orbiter Out of Precautionary 'Safe Mode'

NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter has been taken out of a protective status called safe mode.

Mars Odyssey Mission Status ReportPASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter has been taken out of a protective status called safe mode. Remaining steps toward resuming all normal spacecraft activities will probably be completed by next week.Odyssey resumed pointing downward toward Mars on Saturday, June 16, leaving the Earth-pointed "safe mode" status that was triggered when one of its three primary reaction wheels stuck for a few minutes on June 8, Universal Time (June 7, Pacific Time).  Mission controllers put the orbiter's spare reaction wheel into use in control of Odyssey's orientation while pointed downward, or nadir."Attitude control in nadir pointing is being maintained with the use of the replacement wheel, and the suspect wheel has been taken out of use," said Odyssey Project Manager Gaylon McSmith of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.Controllers will continue characterizing the performance of the replacement wheel in coming days while assessing which other activities of the spacecraft, besides nadir pointing, can be performed reliably with reaction-wheel control of attitude.  The spacecraft can also use thrusters for attitude control, though that method draws on the limited supply of propellant rather than on electricity from the spacecraft's solar array.In returning to full service, Odyssey will first resume its communication relay function for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, and then will resume the orbiter's own scientific observations of Mars. As a priority, activities will resume for preparing Odyssey to serve as a communications relay for NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission.Like many other spacecraft, Odyssey uses a set of three reaction wheels to control its attitude, or which way it is facing relative to the sun, Earth or Mars. Increasing the rotation rate of a reaction wheel inside the spacecraft causes the spacecraft itself to rotate in the opposite direction. The configuration in use from launch in 2001 until three days ago combined the effects of three wheels at right angles to each other to provide control in all directions. The replacement wheel is skewed at angles to all three others so that it could be used as a substitute for any one of them.Odyssey has worked at Mars for more than 10 years, which is longer than any other Mars mission in history. Besides conducting its own scientific observations, it serves as a communication relay for robots on the Martian surface. NASA plans to use Odyssey and the newer Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as communication relays for the Mars Science Laboratory mission during the landing and Mars-surface operations of that mission's Curiosity rover.Odyssey is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft. JPL and Lockheed Martin collaborate on operating the spacecraft. For more about the Mars Odyssey mission, visit:http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/smap-team-investigating-radar-instrument-anomaly

SMAP Team Investigating Radar Instrument Anomaly

Mission managers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, are assessing an anomaly with the radar instrument on NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite observatory.

Mission Status ReportUpdated - Aug. 5, 2015 at 2 p.m. PDT / 5 p.m. EDTThe JPL SMAP mission team continues to troubleshoot the anomaly that occurred on SMAP's radar instrument on July 7. The radar remains in safe mode. SMAP's radiometer instrument continues to operate nominally and is collecting valuable science data.Detailed analyses by the team have isolated the radar anomaly to the low-voltage power supply for the radar's high-power amplifier (HPA). The HPA boosts the power level of the radar's pulse to ensure the energy scattered from Earth's surface is strong enough to be accurately measured by the SMAP radar instrument. The team identified several candidate faults within the low-voltage power supply that could fit the observed telemetry behavior.Although several attempts to recover the radar have been unsuccessful, ongoing analyses have recovered valuable diagnostic data that are assisting the team in better understanding the nature and source of the issue.Continued analysis and ground testing will be performed over the next several weeks. The next attempt to power up the radar may occur in late August.Mission managers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, are assessing an anomaly with the radar instrument on NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite observatory. The radar is one of two science instruments on SMAP used to map global soil moisture and detect whether soils are frozen or thawed.On July 7, at about 2:16 p.m. PDT, SMAP's radar halted its transmissions. All other components of the spacecraft continued to operate normally, including the radiometer instrument that is collecting science data.An anomaly team has been convened at JPL and is reviewing observatory and instrument telemetry and science data. Telemetry indicates no other issues with the spacecraft.SMAP launched Jan. 31, 2015. Its mission is to help scientists understand links among Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles; reduce uncertainties in Earth system modeling; and enhance our ability to monitor and predict natural hazards like floods and droughts. SMAP data have additional practical applications, including improved weather forecasting and crop yield predictions.SMAP is managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington by JPL, with instrument hardware and science contributions made by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. JPL built the spacecraft and is responsible for project management, system engineering, radar instrumentation, mission operations and the ground data system. Goddard is responsible for the radiometer instrument and science data products.More information on the SMAP mission is online at:http://www.nasa.gov/smap

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-juno-to-get-close-look-at-jupiters-volcanic-moon-io-on-dec-30

NASA’s Juno to Get Close Look at Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io on Dec. 30

The orbiter has performed 56 flybys of Jupiter and documented close encounters with three of the gas giant’s four largest moons.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft will on Saturday, Dec. 30, make the closest flyby of Jupiter’s moon Io that any spacecraft has made in over20 years. Coming within roughly 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) from the surface of the most volcanic world in our solar system, the pass is expected to allow Juno instruments to generate a firehose of data.“By combining data from this flyby with our previous observations, the Juno science team is studying how Io’s volcanoes vary,” said Juno’s principal investigator, Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. “We are looking for how often they erupt, how bright and hot they are, how the shape of the lava flow changes, and how Io’s activity is connected to the flow of charged particles in Jupiter’s magnetosphere.”A second ultra-close flyby of Io is scheduled for Feb. 3, 2024, in which Juno will again come within about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of the surface.The spacecraft has been monitoring Io’s volcanic activity from distances ranging from about 6,830 miles (11,000 kilometers) to over 62,100 miles (100,000 kilometers), and has provided the first views of the moon’s north and south poles. The spacecraft has also performed close flybys of Jupiter’s icy moons Ganymede and Europa.This JunoCam image of Jupiter’s moon Io captures a plume of material ejected from the (unseen) volcano Prometheus. Indicated by the red arrow, the plume is just visible in the darkness below the terminator (the line dividing day and night). The image was taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on October 15. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSSFull Image Details“With our pair of close flybys in December and February, Juno will investigate the source of Io’s massive volcanic activity, whether a magma ocean exists underneath its crust, and the importance of tidal forces from Jupiter, which are relentlessly squeezing this tortured moon,” said Bolton.Now in the third year of itsextended missionto investigate the origin of Jupiter, the solar-powered spacecraft will also explore the ring system where some of the gas giant’s inner moons reside.Picture ThisAll three cameras aboard Juno will be active during the Io flyby. The Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM), which takes images in infrared, will be collecting the heat signatures emitted by volcanoes and calderas covering the moon’s surface. The mission’s Stellar Reference Unit (a navigational star camera that has also provided valuable science) will obtain the highest-resolution image of the surface to date. And the JunoCam imager will take visible-light color images.JunoCam was included on the spacecraft for the public’s engagement and was designed to operate for up to eight flybys of Jupiter. The upcoming flyby of Io will be Juno’s 57th orbit around Jupiter, where the spacecraft and cameras have endured one of the solar system’s most punishing radiation environments.“The cumulative effects of all that radiation has begun to show on JunoCam over the last few orbits,” said Ed Hirst, project manager of Juno at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Pictures from the last flyby show a reduction in the imager’s dynamic range and the appearance of ‘striping’ noise. Our engineering team has been working on solutions to alleviate the radiation damage and to keep the imager going.”More Io, PleaseAfter several months of study and assessment, the Juno team adjusted the spacecraft’s planned future trajectory to add seven new distant Io flybys (for a total of 18) to the extended mission plan. After the close Io pass on Feb. 3, the spacecraft will fly by Io every other orbit, with each orbit growing progressively more distant: The first will be at an altitude of about 10,250 miles (16,500 kilometers) above Io, and the last will be at about 71,450 miles (115,000 kilometers).Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERThe gravitational pull of Io on Juno during the Dec. 30 flyby will reduce the spacecraft’s orbit around Jupiter from 38 days to 35 days. Juno’s orbit will drop to 33 days after the Feb. 3 flyby.After that, Juno’s new trajectory will result in Jupiter blocking the Sun from the spacecraft for about five minutes at the time when the orbiter is at its closest to the planet, a period called perijove. Although this will be the first time the solar-powered spacecraft has encountered darkness since its flyby of Earth in October 2013, the duration will be too short to affect its overall operation. With the exception of the Feb. 3 perijove, the spacecraft will encounter solar eclipses like this during every close flyby of Jupiter from now on through the remainder of its extended mission, which ends in late 2025.Starting in April 2024, the spacecraft will carry out a series of occultation experiments that use Juno’sGravity Science experimentto probe Jupiter’s upper atmospheric makeup, which provides key information on the planet’s shape and interior structure.More About the MissionJPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott J. Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft.More information about Juno is available at:https://www.nasa.gov/juno

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/insight-steers-toward-mars

InSight Steers Toward Mars

The spacecraft has completed its first trajectory correction maneuver.

NASA's InSight lander has made its first course correction toward Mars.InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is the first mission dedicated to exploring the deep interior of Mars.The lander is currently encapsulated in a protective aeroshell, which launched on top of an Atlas V 401 rocket on May 5 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Central California. Yesterday, the spacecraft fired its thrusters for the first time to change its flight path. This activity, called a trajectory correction maneuver, will happen a maximum of six times to guide the lander to Mars.Every launch starts with a rocket. That's necessary to get a spacecraft out past Earth's gravity -- but rockets don't complete the journey to other planets. Before launch, every piece of hardware headed to Mars is cleaned, limiting the number of Earth microbes that might travel on the spacecraft. However, the rocket and its upper stage, called a Centaur, don't get the same special treatment.As a result, Mars launches involve aiming the rocket just off-target so that it flies off into space. Separately, the spacecraft performs a series of trajectory correction maneuvers guiding it to the Red Planet. This makes sure that only the clean spacecraft lands on the planet, while the upper stage does not come close.Precise calculations are required for InSight to arrive at exactly the right spot in Mars' atmosphere at exactly the right time, resulting in a landing on Nov. 26. Every step of the way, a team of navigators estimates the position and velocity of the spacecraft. Then they design maneuvers to deliver it to an entry point at Mars. That navigation team is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which leads the InSight mission."This first maneuver is the largest we'll conduct," said Fernando Abilleira of JPL, InSight's Deputy Mission Design and Navigation Manager. "The thrusters will fire for about 40 seconds to impart a velocity change of 3.8 meters per second [8.5 mph] to the spacecraft. That will put us in the right ballpark as we aim for Mars."Especially at the beginning of that cruise, navigators rely on NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) to track the spacecraft. The DSN is a system of antennas located at three sites around the Earth. As the planet rotates, each of these sites comes into range of NASA's spacecraft, pinging them with radio signals to track their positions. The antennas also send and receive data this way.The DSN can give very accurate measurements about spacecraft position and velocity. But predicting where InSight will be after it fires its thrusters requires lots of modeling, Abilleira said. As the cruise to Mars progresses, navigators have more information about the forces acting on a spacecraft. That lets them further refine their models. Combined with DSN tracking measurements, these models allow them to precisely drive the spacecraft to the desired entry point."Navigation is all about statistics, probability and uncertainty," Abilleira said. "As we gather more information on the forces acting on the spacecraft, we can better predict how it's moving and how future maneuvers will affect its path."Yesterday's 40-second burn relies on four of eight thrusters on the spacecraft. A separate group of four is autonomously fired on a daily basis to keep the spacecraft's solar panels trained on the Sun and its antennas pointed at Earth. While necessary to maintain orientation, these small, daily firings also introduce errors that navigators have to account for and counterbalance."Everyone has been working hard since launch to assess what these small forces have done to the trajectory," said Allen Halsell of JPL, InSight's navigation team chief. "People have worked lots of hours to look at that. For engineers, it's a very interesting problem, and fun to try to figure out."When the spacecraft is just a few hours from Mars, the planet's gravitational pull, or gravity well, will begin to reel the spacecraft in. At that point, InSight's team will prepare for the next milestone after cruise: entering Mars' atmosphere, descending to the surface and sticking InSight's landing.JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The InSight spacecraft, including cruise stage and lander, was built and tested by Lockheed Martin Space in Denver.Find more information about InSight at:https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/Follow InSight's path to Mars by visiting NASA's Eyes on the Solar System:https://go.nasa.gov/2FSWReg

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-rover-opportunity-passes-half-way-point-to-next-destination

Mars Rover Opportunity Passes Half-Way Point to Next Destination

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has driven more than half of the distance needed to get from a site where it spent 22 months to its next destination.

Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status ReportPASADENA, Calif. - NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has driven more than half of the distance needed to get from a site where it spent 22 months to its next destination.The rover has less than half a mile (800 meters) to go to finish a 1.2-mile (2-kilometer) dash from one crater-rim segment, where it worked since mid-2011, to another, where mission controllers intend to keep Opportunity busy during the upcoming Martian winter.Opportunity departed the southern tip of the "Cape York" segment six weeks ago and headed south for "Solander Point." Both are raised portions of the western rim of 14-mile-wide (22-kilometer-wide) Endeavour Crater, offering access to older geological deposits than the rover visited during its first seven years on Mars. Opportunity was launched from Florida on July 7, 2003, EDT (July 8, UTC). It landed on Mars Jan. 24, 2004, PDT (Jan. 25, EDT and UTC).A flatter area called Botany Bay separates Cape York from Solander Point."We are making very good progress crossing 'Botany Bay,'" said John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., who is project manager for the nearly decade-old mission.The terrain is favorable for the trek."The surface that Opportunity is driving across in Botany Bay is polygonally fractured outcrop that is remarkably good for driving," said Brad Joliff, an Opportunity science team member and long-term planner at Washington University in St. Louis. "The plates of outcrop, like a tiled mosaic pavement, have a thin covering of soil, not enough to form the wind-blown ripples we've had to deal with during some other long treks. The outcrop plates are light-toned, and the cracks between them are filled with dark, basaltic soil and our old friends the 'blueberries.'"The BB-size spherules nicknamed "blueberries" are hematite-rich, erosion-resistant concretions that Opportunity discovered at its landing site and continued seeing on much of the ground between there and Endeavour Crater.The rise of Solander Point to the south gives the team a very visible destination during the drive. That destination offers both a tall cross section of rock layers for examination and also an expanse of terrain that includes a north-facing slope, which is favorable for the solar-powered rover to stay active and mobile through the coming Martian southern-hemisphere winter.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. For more about Spirit and Opportunity, visithttp://www.nasa.gov/roversandhttp://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov. You can follow the project on Twitter and on Facebook at:http://twitter.com/MarsRoversandhttp://www.facebook.com/mars.rovers.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/three-jpl-discovery-missions-selected-for-possible-development

Three JPL Discovery Missions Selected for Possible Development

Three mission concepts developed in cooperation with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to study the Sun, the atmosphere of Venus and the tail of an active comet have been selected to compete for launch in 1999 as part of NASA's Discovery program, designed to develop and launch small, low-cost planetary spacecraft with highly focused science goals.

Three mission concepts developed in cooperation with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to study the Sun, the atmosphere of Venus and the tail of an active comet have been selected to compete for launch in 1999 as part of NASA's Discovery program, designed to develop and launch small, low-cost planetary spacecraft with highly focused science goals.The three Discovery missions, announced today by NASA Associate Administrator Dr. Wesley T. Huntress Jr., will be studied over the next six to nine months, leading to a fall 1995 decision to select one of them for development and launch.The three missions are:-- Stardust, which would fly through the extended coma, or tail, of the active comet P/Wild 2, taking images and returning a sample of its cometary dust to Earth for further analysis;-- Suess-Urey, which would collect samples of solar particle matter streaming outward from the Sun and return it to Earth for laboratory study; and-- The Venus Multiprobe Mission, which would drop 16 small probes into the thick Venusian atmosphere to enable study of its unusual atmospheric circulation."I am absolutely thrilled with the potential of these missions, and with the universally high quality of the 28 proposals submitted to us," said NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin. "The university and aerospace industry communities should be proud of their efforts, which represent a model of how to pursue scientifically first-rate space exploration using small, advanced spacecraft."JPL will conduct studies of the three mission concepts over the summer with partners in industry, academia and the scientific community. The missions will be modeled after JPL's Mars Pathfinder mission, one of the first missions to be approved under NASA's Discovery program. Pathfinder will place a lander and small, semiautonomous rover on the surface of Mars in July 1997, testing new technologies that will be incorporated into future flights to Mars.Plans call for Stardust to be launched on a Med-Lite launch vehicle -- roughly half the size of a Delta II launch vehicle -- in February 1999 for a total cost to NASA of $208 million. The Stardust team is led by Principal Investigator Dr. Donald Brownlee of the University of Washington in Seattle, with Martin Marietta Astronautics of Denver, Colo., as the contractor. Dr. Paul Swanson of JPL has been named project manager.The Venus Multiprobe Mission would be launched on a Delta II launch vehicle in June 1999 for a total cost to NASA of $202 million. This Discovery mission will be led by Principal Investigator Dr. Richard Goody of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., with Hughes Space and Communications Group, El Segundo, Calif., as the industry contractor. Willis Meeks will become JPL project manager.The Suess-Urey mission, named after two prominent scientists in the field of solar physics -- Drs. Hans E. Suess and Harold C. Urey -- would be launched on a NASA MedLite launch vehicle in August 1999 for a total mission cost to NASA of $214 million. The Suess-Urey team would be led by Principal Investigator Dr. Donald Burnett of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., with Martin Marietta as the contractor. This mission to study the Sun's solar wind would be managed by Dr. Firouz Naderi of JPL.Twenty-eight formal proposals for the next Discovery missions were received by NASA in October 1994 in response to an August 1994 announcement of opportunity. NASA officials plan to release future announcements of opportunity under the Discovery program about every 18 months.JPL carries out its portion of the work on the selected missions for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/serendipitous-juno-detections-shatter-ideas-about-origin-of-zodiacal-light

Serendipitous Juno Detections Shatter Ideas About Origin of Zodiacal Light

Data from the NASA spacecraft’s journey to Jupiter suggests that Mars may be shedding dust into interplanetary space.

Look up to the night sky just before dawn, or after dusk, and you might see a faint column of light extending up from the horizon. That luminous glow is the zodiacal light, or sunlight reflected toward Earth by a cloud of tiny dust particles orbiting the Sun. Astronomers have long thought that the dust is brought into the inner solar system by a few of the asteroid and comet families that venture in from afar.But now, a team of Juno scientists argues that Mars may be the culprit. They published their finding in aMarch 9 paperin the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. An instrument aboard the Juno spacecraft serendipitously detected dust particles slamming into the spacecraft during its journey from Earth to Jupiter. The impacts provided important clues to the origin and orbital evolution of the dust, resolving some mysterious variations of the zodiacal light.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERThough their discovery has big implications, the scientists who spent years studying cosmic debris did not set out to do so. “I never thought we’d be looking for interplanetary dust,” saidJohn Leif Jørgensen, a professor at the Technical University of Denmark.Jørgensen designed the four star trackers that are part of Juno’s magnetometer investigation. These onboard cameras snap photos of the sky every quarter of a second to determine Juno’s orientation in space by recognizing star patterns in its images – an engineering task essential to the magnetometer’s accuracy.But Jørgensen hoped his cameras might also catch sight of an undiscovered asteroid. So he programmed one camera to report things that appeared in multiple consecutive images but weren’t in the catalog of known celestial objects.He didn’t expect to see much: Nearly all objects in the sky are accounted for in the star catalog. So when the camera started beaming down thousands of images of unidentifiable objects – streaks appearing then mysteriously disappearing – Jørgensen and his colleagues were baffled. “We were looking at the images and saying, ‘What could this be?’” he said.Jørgensen and his team considered many plausible and some implausible causes. There was the unnerving possibility that the star camera had caught a leaking fuel tank on Juno. “We thought, ‘Something is really wrong,’” Jørgensen said. “The images looked like someone was shaking a dusty tablecloth out their window.”It wasn’t until the researchers calculated the apparent size and velocity of the objects in the images that they finally realized something: Dust grains had smashed into Juno at about 10,000 miles (or 16,000 kilometers) per hour, chipping off submillimeter pieces of spacecraft. “Even though we’re talking about objects with only a tiny bit of mass, they pack a mean punch,” saidJack Connerney, Juno’s magnetometer investigation lead and the mission’s deputy principal investigator, who’s based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.As it turned out, the spray of debris was coming from Juno’s expansive solar panels – the biggest and most sensitive unintended dust detector ever built.“Each piece of debris we tracked records the impact of an interplanetary dust particle, allowing us to compile a distribution of dust along Juno’s path,” Connerney said. Juno launched in 2011. After adeep-space maneuverin the asteroid belt in 2012, it returned to the inner solar system for an Earth gravity assist in 2013, which catapulted the spacecraft towards Jupiter.Connerney and Jørgensen noticed that the majority of dust impacts were recorded between Earth and the asteroid belt, with gaps in the distribution related to the influence of Jupiter’s gravity. According to the scientists, this was a radical revelation. Before now, scientists have been unable to measure the distribution of these dust particles in space. Dedicated dust detectors have had limited collection areas and thus limited sensitivity to a sparse population of dust. They mostly count the more abundant and much smaller dust particles from interstellar space. In comparison, Juno’s expansive solar panels have 1,000 times more collection area than most dust detectors.Juno scientists determined that the dust cloud ends at Earth because Earth’s gravity sucks up all the dust that gets near it. “That’s the dust we see as zodiacal light,” Jørgensen said.As for the outer edge, around 2 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun (1 AU is the distance between Earth and the Sun), it ends just beyond Mars. At that point, the scientists report, the influence of Jupiter’s gravity acts as a barrier, preventing dust particles from crossing from the inner solar system into deep space. This same phenomenon, known as orbital resonance, also works the other way, where it blocks dust originating in deep space from passing into the inner solar system.The profound influence of the gravity barrier indicates that the dust particles are in a nearly circular orbit around the Sun, Jørgensen said. “And the only object we know of in almost circular orbit around 2 AU is Mars, so the natural thought is that Mars is a source of this dust,” he said.Look up to the night sky just before dawn, or after dusk, and you might see a faint column of light extending up from the horizon. Astronomers have long thought that the dust is brought into the inner solar system by a few of the asteroid and comet families that venture in from afar. But now, a team of Juno scientists argues that the planet Mars may be the culprit.Credit: NASA Goddard“The distribution of dust that we measure better be consistent with the variation of zodiacal light that has been observed,” Connerney said. The researchers developed a computer model to predict the light reflected by the dust cloud, dispersed by gravitational interaction with Jupiter that scatters the dust into a thicker disk. The scattering depends only on two quantities: the dust inclination to the ecliptic and its orbital eccentricity. When the researchers plugged in the orbital elements of Mars, the distribution accurately predicted the telltale signature of the variation of zodiacal light near the ecliptic. “That is, in my view, a confirmation that we know exactly how these particles are orbiting in our solar system,” Connerney said, “and where they originate.”While there is good evidence now that Mars, the dustiest planet we know of, is the source of the zodiacal light, Jørgensen and his colleagues cannot yet explain how the dust could have escaped the grip of Martian gravity. They hope other scientists will help them.In the meantime, the researchers note that finding the true distribution and density of dust particles in the solar system will help engineers design spacecraft materials that can better withstand dust impacts. Knowing the precise distribution of dust may also guide the design of flight paths for future spacecraft in order to avoid the highest concentration of particles. Tiny particles traveling at such high velocities can gouge up to 1,000 times their mass from a spacecraft.Juno’s solar arrays escaped harm because the solar cells are well protected against impact on the back – or dark – side of the array by the support structure.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-airs-captures-polar-vortex-moving-in-over-us

NASA's AIRS Captures Polar Vortex Moving in Over US

NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument captured the polar vortex as it moved southward from central Canada into the U.S. Midwest from January 20 to January 29.

The U.S. Midwest has been gripped by the lowest temperatures it has seen in years. An unusually cold Arctic air mass, called a polar vortex, is responsible for the severe temperatures, which in many areas have plunged well below 0 degrees Fahrenheit (-18 degrees Celsius).NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard the Aqua satellite captured the polar vortex as it moved southward from central Canada into the U.S. Midwest from Jan. 20 through Jan. 29. The illustration shows temperatures at an altitude of about 10,000 to 15,000 feet (600 millibars atmospheric pressure) above the ground. The lowest temperatures are shown in purple and blue and range from -40 degrees Fahrenheit (also -40 degrees Celsius) to -10 degrees Fahrenheit (-23 degrees Celsius). As the data series progresses, you can see how the coldest purple areas of the air mass scoop down into the U.S.The polar vortex is responsible for a number of deaths, disruptions to services, and energy outages in the affected areas.AIRS, in conjunction with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), senses emitted infrared and microwave radiation from Earth to provide a three-dimensional look at Earth's weather and climate. Working in tandem, the two instruments make simultaneous observations down to Earth's surface. With more than 2,000 channels sensing different regions of the atmosphere, the system creates a global, three-dimensional map of atmospheric temperature and humidity, cloud amounts and heights, greenhouse gas concentrations and many other atmospheric phenomena.Launched into Earth orbit in 2002, the AIRS and AMSU instruments are managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, under contract to NASA. JPL is a division of the Caltech in Pasadena.More information about AIRS can be found at:https://airs.jpl.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/stardust-mission-set-to-bring-back-a-piece-of-a-comet

Stardust Mission Set to Bring Back a Piece of a Comet

NASA's Stardust mission, scheduled for launch Saturday, February 6, from Cape Canaveral, FL, will send a spacecraft flying through the cloud of dust that surrounds the nucleus of a comet - and, for the first time ever, bring cometary material back to Earth.

NASA's Stardust mission, scheduled for launch Saturday, February 6, from Cape Canaveral, FL, will send a spacecraft flying through the cloud of dust that surrounds the nucleus of a comet - and, for the first time ever, bring cometary material back to Earth.Launch is scheduled at 4:06 p.m. Eastern time, with live coverage on NASA Television beginning at 2:30 p.m. Eastern. A post-launch briefing is planned to be broadcast on NASA Television at 6 p.m. Eastern.Comets, which periodically grace our sky like celestial bottle rockets, are thought to hold many of the original ingredients of the recipe that created the planets and brought plentiful water to Earth. They are also rich in organic material, which provided our planet with many of the ready-to-mix molecules that could give rise to life. They may be the oldest, most primitive bodies in the solar system, a preserved record of the original nebula that formed the Sun and the planets."Scientists have long sought a sample directly from a known comet because of the unique chemical and physical information these bodies contain about the earliest history of the solar system," said Dr. Edward Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for space science. "Locked within comet molecules and atoms could be the record of the formation of the planets and the materials from which they were made."Stardust is the first U.S. mission dedicated solely to a comet and will be the first to return extraterrestrial material from outside the orbit of the Moon. Stardust's main objective is to capture a sample from a well-preserved comet called Wild-2 (pronounced "Vilt-2").The spacecraft will also collect interstellar dust from a recently discovered flow of particles that passes through our solar system from interstellar space. As in the proverbial "from dust to dust," this interstellar dust represents the ultimate in recycled material; it is the stuff from which all solid objects in the universe are made, and the state to which everything eventually returns. Scientists want to discover the composition of this "stardust" to determine the history, chemistry, physics and mineralogy of nature's most fundamental building blocks.Because it would be virtually impossible to equip a spacecraft with the most sophisticated lab instrumentation needed to analyze such material in space, the Stardust spacecraft is more of a robotic lab assistant whose job it is pick up and deliver a sample to scientists back on Earth. The spacecraft will, however, radio some on-the-spot analytical observations of the comet and interstellar dust."The samples we will collect are extremely small, less than a micron, or 1/25,000th of an inch, in size, and can only be adequately studied in laboratories with sophisticated analytical instruments," said Dr. Donald C. Brownlee of the University of Washington, principal investigator for the Stardust mission."Even if a ton of sample were returned, the main information in the solids would still be recorded at the micron level, and the analyses would still be done a single grain at a time."Stardust will meet up with Comet Wild-2 on January 2, 2004. A gravity assist flyby of Earth will put Stardust on a trajectory that will allow it to capture cometary dust intact at a low relative speed of 6.1 kilometers per second (about 13,600 miles per hour). An onboard camera will aid in navigating the spacecraft as close as about 150 kilometers (100 miles) from the comet's nucleus, permitting the capture of the freshest samples from the heart of the comet.Dressed for survival behind armored shields, Stardust will document its 10-hour passage through the hailstorm of comet debris with scientific instruments and the navigation camera. On approach to the dust cloud, or "coma," the spacecraft will flip open a tennis-racket-shaped particle catcher filled with a smoke- colored glass foam called aerogel to capture the comet particles. Aerogel, the lowest-density material in the world, has enough "give" in it to slow and stop particles without altering them too much. After the sample has been collected, the aerogel capturing device will fold down into a return capsule, which closes like a clamshell to enclose the sample for its safe delivery to Earth.In addition, a particle impact mass spectrometer will obtain in-flight data on the composition of both cometary and interstellar dust, especially very fine particles. The optical navigation camera should provide excellent images of the dark mass of the comet's nucleus. Other equipment will reveal the distribution in both time and space of coma dust, and could give an estimate of the comet's mass.On January 15, 2006, a parachute will set the capsule gently onto the salt flats of the Utah desert for retrieval. The scientifically precious samples can be studied for decades into the future with ever-improving techniques and analysis technologies, limited only by the number of atoms and molecules of the sample material available. Many types of analyses now performed on lunar samples, for example, were not even conceived at the time of the Apollo missions to the Moon.Comets are small, irregularly shaped bodies composed of a mixture of grains of rock, organic molecules and frozen gases. Most comets are about 50 percent water ice. Typically ranging in size up to about 10 kilometers (6 miles) in diameter, comets have highly elliptical orbits that bring them close to the Sun and then swing them back out into deep space. They spend most of their existences in a deep freeze beyond the orbit of Pluto - far beyond the Sun's dwindling influence, which is why so much of their original material is well-preserved.When a comet approaches within about 700 million kilometers (half billion miles) of the Sun, the surface of the nucleus begins to warm, and material on the comet's nucleus heats and begins to vaporize. This process, along with the loss of rocky debris or other particles that fly off the surface, creates the cloud around the nucleus called the coma. It is the glowing, fuzzy coma that appears as the head of a comet when one is observed from Earth. A tail of luminous debris and another, less apparent, tail of gases flow millions of miles beyond the head in the direction away from the Sun.Comet Wild-2 is considered an ideal target for study because, until recently, it was a long-period comet that rarely ventured close to the Sun. A fateful pass near Jupiter and its enormous gravity field in 1974 pulled Comet Wild-2 off-course, diverting it onto a tighter orbit that brings it past the Sun more frequently and also closer to Earth's neighborhood. Because Wild-2 has only recently changed its orbit, it has lost little of its original material when compared with other short-period comets, so it offers some of the best-preserved comet samples that can be obtained.Stardust was competitively selected in the fall of 1995 under NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, highly focused science missions. As a Discovery mission, Stardust has met a fast development schedule, uses a small Delta launch vehicle, is cost-capped at less than $200 million, and is the product of a partnership involving NASA, academia and industry.Principal investigator Brownlee is well-known for his discovery of cosmic particles in Earth's stratosphere known as Brownlee particles. Dr. Peter Tsou of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, an innovator in aerogel technology and maker of aerogel, serves as deputy investigator. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the Stardust mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Dr. Kenneth L. Atkins of JPL is project manager. The spacecraft is designed, built and operated by Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO. JPL provided the spacecraft's optical navigation camera, and the Max Planck Institute of Germany provided the real-time dust composition analyzer.NASA Television is broadcast on the satellite GE-2, transponder 9C, C band, 85 degrees west longitude, frequency 3880.0 MHz, vertical polarization, audio monaural at 6.8 MHz.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-dust-storms

Mars Dust Storms

Martian dust storms are very much like the severe ones on Earth--"only more so," Jet Propulsion Laboratory planetary scientist says.

Martian dust storms are very much like the severe ones on Earth--"only more so," Jet Propulsion Laboratory planetary scientist says.The towering storms which obscured Mars' southern hemisphere in 1971 appear to have been triggered by the same mechanism which kicks up giant dust clouds on Earth in winter and spring--polar air sweeping down onto warmer mountain slope, basin or plain.Peter M. Woiceshyn of JPL reported this finding after twoyear comparative study of Martian and Earth dust storm data. He said Martian storms, particularly in the Hellas area, are "quite similar" to some in the arid regions of Russia, Persia, the high plains of the United States, and the Arizona and Sahara deserts.The JPL investigator used Lowell Observatory data on July l9, 1971, Martian dust storm to determine that wall of dust over 30 miles high (50 kilometers) swept down the west slopes of Hellas at speeds greater than 300 miles per hour. Mariner 9 radio occultation data provided by Dr. Arvidas J. Kliore, also of JPL, verified that such high-velocity winds would be required to raise surface dust in Mars' low atmospheric pressure.(Air density on Mars is only l/l00th that on Earth. Mariner 9 is the unmanned spacecraft laboratory which JPL sent to orbit Mars in 1970-71 for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.)When Mariner 9 arrived in November, 1971, second dust storm had been in progress several weeks. Dust cloud tops were estimated by Mariner 9 experimenters at heights of 50 to 70 kilometers (30 to 40 miles) above the surface.In their joint written report, Woiceshyn and Kliore said the two 1971 storms (and another in 1956) began in the same location on Hellas slopes and apparently were triggered by cold jet stream from the Martian north pole, funneling down long valley across the planet's equator.Hellas extends from about 65 degrees to 30 degrees south latitude on Mars. Its long sloping topography is strong factor in producing giant dusters--the bottom of the Hellas basin lying 8 km (5 miles) lower than the highest rim of the surrounding mountains."The gravity flow produced from cold air streaming over the top of mountain ridge is like combination of waterfall and tidal wave," Woiceshyn told members of the Division of planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Tex., March 30. He will make further report at the annual spring meeting of the American Geophysical Union April 11 in Washington, D.C.Such frigid air cascade over mountain barrier onto slope and plain is known to meteorologists as bora, or norther. The best Earth examples, Woiceshyn points out, are found in Russia, where polar winds sweep the steppes; in the mountain-ringed valleys of Persia, and to some extent on the U.S. plains just east of the Rockies.Typical dust storms on these plains have been reported to reach heights of more than 20,000 feet, with winds near the surface ranging from 60 to l00 miles per hour. recent (March 19) dust storm obscured the Colorado-Kansas border region, whipped by 80 to l00 mph winds.Data from Project Dustorm (cq), organized by the Aerosol Project Group and headed by Dr. Ed Danielsen of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colo., is now being analyzed to determine the soil erosion damage caused by severe dusters in this country and around the world.The most intense and dangerous storms on Earth have occurred during prolonged periods of drought, such as the early 1930s in the U.S. dustbowl area. In Russia winds of prolonged 1928 storm raised more than 15 million tons of black earth dust from an area of 250 million acres, according to Woiceshyn's research.Similar erosion is caused by the heavy winds on Mars, too, Mariner 9 revealed. And there were indications other factors may be at work on the Red Planet.The yellow cast of the Mars' dust clouds gave them the appear ance of so-called desert dusters, known as haboobs (Arabic for wild winds). Haboobs are the dust-laden gusts which occasionally cool Sahara and Arizona desert regions during the summer. But there is no firm proof yet that the right conditions exist to produce that type of storm on Mars.However, more conclusive data on Martian storms could be provided in the coming year by the two 1976 Viking soacecraft and their landers. Viking arrives at Mars in mid-June and drops its lander on or about July 4. Viking II reaches Mars in mid-August, with lander descendinq about Sept. 4.The Woiceshyn-Kliore study was sponsored by NASA's Office of Space Science. Caltech operates JPL for NASA.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/galileo-flyby-of-gaspra-yields-new-information

Galileo Flyby of Gaspra Yields New Information

While scientific knowledge of asteroids has increased significantly in the last decade, Galileo's recent flight past the main-belt asteroid, Gaspra, may yield new information about planet formation in the early solar system.

While scientific knowledge of asteroids has increased significantly in the last decade, Galileo's recent flight past the main-belt asteroid, Gaspra, may yield new information about planet formation in the early solar system."These small rocky bodies represent matter in a pristine form," said Dr. Alan Harris of JPL's Geology and Planetology Section. "Asteroids may be able to tell us more about the early solar system than planets, because they have evolved far less. Their chemical and physical structures are nearly the same as they were during the formation of the solar system."Asteroids, named for the Greek word meaning "starlike," are the remnants of planetary materials that failed to accrete during the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. More than 90 percent of all known asteroids have orbits in the vast region of space between Mars and Jupiter, called the main asteroid belt."The gravitational disturbances surrounding Jupiter prevented any materials from forming, or coalescing, in that region," Harris said. "So far, we would estimate there are about 10,000 asteroids 10 kilometers or larger in the main belt. About 1,000 are the size of Gaspra or larger."The main-belt asteroids orbit between Mars and Jupiter at an average inclination of about 10 degrees from the ecliptic planein which the planets of the solar system orbit. The main asteroid belt stretches from its inner edge of 2.2 astronomical units (AUs) to about 3.3 AUs, or 200 to 300 million miles from the sun. Planetary scientists have been able to calculate and catalog the orbital paths of about 5,000 of the asteroids.Some asteroids have very different orbits, however. The Trojan asteroids, for instance, orbit far beyond the main asteroid belt, circling the sun in step behind and ahead of the giant planet Jupiter, at the same distance of 5.2 AUs that Jupiter orbits the sun. Others follow elliptic paths that cross the orbits of Mars and Earth. A few even come closer to the sun than Mercury.Asteroids that cross Earth's orbit are called "near-Earth asteroids." The most common subclasses are the Apollo, Amor and Aten groups."Among the near-Earth asteroids, the largest we have discovered is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) across," Harris said, "but the more common asteroids are 1 kilometer or larger. We estimate there are a couple thousand that size, of which only 200 have been discovered."While a chance collision with an asteroid that crosses Earth's orbit is possible, Harris said the probability is low."On average, the chance of a collision with a single asteroid will be about once every 100 million years," he said. "Since there are about 2,000 of them 1 kilometer or larger in size, the Earth will be struck by one such asteroid about every 50,000 years."The Diablo Canyon crater near Flagstaff, Ariz., is an example of a collision with a meteorite that was less than 1 kilometer in diameter."But every 100 million years or so, the Earth is struck by one of the largest near-Earth asteroids (10 kilometers or more across), causing massive biological extinctions," Harris added. "One such event is thought to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago."Asteroids vary not only in size but in shape. Most are irregularly shaped, with a long and short axis, and may look something like a potato. The largest known asteroid, Ceres, has a diameter of 570 miles. Gaspra is a small, main-belt asteroid, about the size of the Martian moon Deimos, with an average diameter of eight miles. Ground-based observations indicate Gaspra is quite irregular in shape, perhaps twice as long as it is high.Asteroids also vary in composition and are grouped accordingly in taxonomic classes, Harris said. Their colors and albedos -- the amount of sunlight reflected off the asteroid -- are measured to determine the object's composition and classification. The variety of colors and spectra suggest different surface compositions."The most common asteroids are extremely dark and thought to be composed of minerals analogous to a class of meteorites called carbonaceous chondrites," Harris said. They are known as the C-asteroids, where "C" implies carbonaceous. C-class asteroids dominate the outer part of the main asteroid belt.S-asteroids, such as Gaspra, are the next most populous group. The "S" refers to silicaceous. In these asteroids, the dark carbon compounds are missing, so the objects have moderate albedos -- typically about 16 percent -- and reddish hues. The compositions of these asteroids are thought to be combinations of iron and magnesium-bearing silicates, and may also contain some metallic nickel-iron.Scientists want to know whether the S-asteroids, like the C-asteroids, are linked chemically to the ordinary chondrite meteorites, the most common class of meteorites. They hope Galileo's close-range spectral scans of Gaspra will tell them more about the asteroid's composition, as well as its crater density and surface structure."The third type of asteroid family is the M-class, for metallic asteroids," Harris said. "These asteroids also have moderate albedos, but without the spectral signatures of silicate compounds."Distribution patterns of the asteroids show a clear progression with solar distance."The S-asteroids are closer to Earth than the M-asteroids and C-asteroids," Harris said. S's are found primarily in the inner regions of the asteroid belt, while M's and C's seem to be distributed in the middle and outer belt.Some asteroids may also be the cores of extinct comets. Scientists believe that between 10 to 50 percent of the near-Earth asteroids may be comet cores."The only clear distinction between a comet and an asteroid lies in whether the object has a visible atmosphere," said Ray Newburn of JPL's Atmospheric and Cometary Sciences Section."If the object begins to produce copious gases as it nears the sun, it's considered a comet," he said. "Comets contain water ice and other volatiles that vaporize when heated by the sun. Generally, they begin to produce an extensive atmosphere, called the coma, and a tail of escaping gas as they warm up."By contrast, asteroids are inactive bodies," Newburn said. "Some could be the cores of extinct comets."The Oct. 29, 1991 Gaspra flyby was part of NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter. The mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/new-project-scientist-for-mars-rover

New Project Scientist for Mars Rover

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has a new science-team chief who has already helped lead the mission for a decade.

The new project scientist for Mars Rover Curiosity is Ashwin Vasavada of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. Vasavada had been deputy project scientist for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project since 2004 -- five years before the name Curiosity was chosen for the project's rover.The project scientist's role is to coordinate efforts of an international team of nearly 500 scientists operating the rover's 10 science instruments, planning rover investigations and assessing data from Curiosity. The project scientist also works closely with the JPL-based project manager and rover engineering team to maximize the science while using the rover efficiently and safely.Vasavada succeeds John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, who recently became chair of Caltech's Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences and remains a member of Curiosity's science team.Vasavada has helped shepherd the project through development of the spacecraft, selection and integration of the science instruments, selection of the landing site in Mars' Gale Crater, activities of Curiosity since its August 2012 landing, and publication of many research findings."John Grotzinger put his heart and soul into Curiosity for seven years, leaving a legacy of success and scientific achievement," Vasavada said. "Now I look forward to continuing our expedition to Mars' ancient past, with a healthy rover and a dedicated and passionate international team. And yes, this is all just incredibly cool."Researchers are currently using Curiosity to investigate the geological layers at the base of a mountain inside Gale Crater. Recent findings indicate that the lower portion of the mountain formed as sedimentary deposits in lakes and streams. During its two-year prime mission, Curiosity found evidence that Mars offered favorable conditions for microbial life about three billion years ago.Vasavada has also worked on the science teams for NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and for the Cassini mission to Saturn. He holds a 1998 doctorate in planetary science from Caltech and a 1992 bachelor of science degree in geophysics and space physics from the University of California, Los Angeles.Vasavada resides in Los Angeles. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his niece, exploring California's mountains, and volunteering to improve scientific education and literacy. He currently chairs the board of a non-profit that runs three science-focused, public schools in south Los Angeles.JPL, a division of Caltech, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, and built the project's Curiosity rover.For more information about Curiosity, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/mslandhttp://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/You can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at:http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosityandhttp://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/new-phase-of-exploration-beginning-for-mars-rovers

New Phase of Exploration Beginning for Mars Rovers

NASA's Spirit will begin trekking toward hills on its eastern horizon in the next few days, entering a new phase of the rover's exploration of Mars just before its prime three-month mission ends and its extended mission begins, rover team members said today.

NASA's Spirit will begin trekking toward hills on its eastern horizon in the next few days, entering a new phase of the rover's exploration of Mars just before its prime three-month mission ends and its extended mission begins, rover team members said today.The range of peaks named "Columbia Hills" is an island of older rock surrounded by a younger volcanic layer which surfaces the plain that Spirit has been crossing, said Dr. Ray Arvidson of Washington University, St. Louis. He is deputy principal investigator for the science payload on both Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity.Older rocks may hold evidence of an ancient body of water thought to have once filled Gusev Crater. Spirit landed inside that 150-kilometer-wide (95-mile-wide) crater 12 weeks ago, and the rover's main task is to find geological clues about whether the region ever had a wet environment. Spirit has spent much of its time since landing driving toward a 200-meter-wide (660-foot-wide) crater nicknamed "Bonneville." Rover scientists had anticipated that the impact that excavated Bonneville might have ejected rocks old enough to hold clues about whether Gusev held water."The ejecta from Bonneville didn't get excavated from deep enough to get below the volcanic layer," Arvidson said. So, after finishing an examination of a light-colored rock on the crater's rim, Spirit will head for the hills.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., built each of the two Mars Exploration Rovers for a prime mission of 90 martian days of operation. Both rovers are healthy and could operate for several additional months, said JPL's Matt Wallace, mission manager. A martian day, or sol, lasts about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day, and Spirit's 82nd sol began on Friday. "Spirit will start driving toward the hills on sol 84 or a little after that," Wallace said.Scientists have examined the terrain between Bonneville Crater and Columbia Hills in photographs taken from orbit by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and found several features to inspect along the route. These include some small craters and a dark streak apparently left by a whirlwind that removed dust.Science team member Dr. Larry Crumpler of New Mexico Museum of Natural History, Albuquerque, said, "It won't be a continuous drive, like a bad road trip. We'll actually get out and do some touristy things along the way."With stops for "traverse science" along the way, the trip of about 2.3 kilometers (1.3 miles) to the near edge of Columbia Hills will probably take 60 to 90 sols, Arvidson said.Beginning next week and continuing into the extended mission, Spirit's controllers will switch from working on Mars time - with schedules set to coincide with day or night at Gusev crater - to an Earth time schedule easier to maintain for the long haul. The Opportunity team will shift the following week, Wallace said.Opportunity is also at the start of a trek. This week, it climbed out of the small impact crater informally named "Eagle Crater" that it had been examining since it landed nine weeks ago. Rocks in an outcrop within the crater have provided evidence that the site was once under flowing water. In coming weeks, Opportunity will drive about 750 meters (nearly half a mile) to a crater nicknamed "Endurance," where scientists hope to find and examine a thicker set of bedrock layers to learn more about the duration of the region's wet history.Before leaving Eagle Crater, Opportunity inspected the soil at five sites in the opposite half of the crater from the outcrop. The target patches show a diversity of particle sizes and shapes on the surface. "We're seeing the effects of differences in wind speed," said Bethany Ehlmann, a science team collaborator from the University of Washington, St. Louis. In some patches more than others, winds have removed small particles and left large particles behind, she said.Spherical gray particles that have been fancifully called blueberries are plentiful in some soil patches higher on the inner slope of the crater than near the center of the crater. A reading by Opportunity's Moessbauer spectrometer on one of the higher patches found the highest concentration of hematite seen so far in the mission, reported Dr. Goestar Klingelhoefer of the University of Mainz, Germany. He is the lead scientist for that instrument, which is used for identifying iron-containing minerals. The type of hematite Opportunity has been finding usually forms on Earth under wet environmental conditions. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Images and additional information about the project are available from JPL athttp://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.govand from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., athttp://athena.cornell.edu.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/spitzer-finds-a-flavorful-mix-of-asteroids

Spitzer Finds a Flavorful Mix of Asteroids

New research from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveals that asteroids somewhat near Earth, termed near-Earth objects, are a mixed bunch, with a surprisingly wide array of compositions.

New research from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveals that asteroids somewhat near Earth, termed near-Earth objects, are a mixed bunch, with a surprisingly wide array of compositions. Like a piñata filled with everything from chocolates to fruity candies, these asteroids come in assorted colors and compositions. Some are dark and dull; others are shiny and bright. The Spitzer observations of 100 known near-Earth asteroids demonstrate that the objects’ diversity is greater than previously thought.The findings are helping astronomers better understand near-Earth objects as a whole -- a population whose physical properties are not well known."These rocks are teaching us about the places they come from," said David Trilling of Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, lead author of a new paper on the research appearing in the September issue of Astronomical Journal. "It's like studying pebbles in a streambed to learn about the mountains they tumbled down."After nearly six years of operation, in May 2009, Spitzer used up the liquid coolant needed to chill its infrared detectors. It is now operating in a so-called "warm" mode (the actual temperature is still quite cold at 30 Kelvin, or minus 406 degrees Fahrenheit). Two of Spitzer's infrared channels, the shortest-wavelength detectors on the observatory, are working perfectly.One of the mission's new "warm" programs is to survey about 700 near-Earth objects, cataloguing their individual traits. By observing in infrared, Spitzer is helping to gather more accurate estimates of asteroids' compositions and sizes than what is possible with visible light alone. Visible-light observations of an asteroid won't differentiate between an asteroid that is big and dark, or small and light. Both rocks would reflect the same amount of visible sunlight. Infrared data provide a read on the object's temperature, which then tells an astronomer more about the actual size and composition. A big, dark rock has a higher temperature than a small, light one because it absorbs more sunlight.Trilling and his team have analyzed preliminary data on 100 near-Earth asteroids so far. They plan to observe 600 more over the next year. There are roughly 7,000 known near-Earth objects out of a population expected to number in the tens to hundreds of thousands."Very little is known about the physical characteristics of the near-Earth population," said Trilling. "Our data will tell us more about the population, and how it changes from one object to the next. This information could be used to help plan possible future space missions to study a near-Earth object."The data show that some of the smaller objects have surprisingly high albedos (an albedo is a measurement of how much sunlight an object reflects). Since asteroid surfaces become darker with time due to exposure to solar radiation, the presence of lighter, brighter surfaces for some asteroids may indicate that they are relatively young. This is evidence for the continuing evolution of the near-Earth object population.In addition, the fact that the asteroids observed so far have a greater degree of diversity than expected indicates that they might have different origins. Some might come from the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, and others could come from farther out in the solar system. This diversity also suggests that the materials that went into making the asteroids -- the same materials that make up our planets -- were probably mixed together like a big solar-system soup very early in its history.The research complements that of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, an all-sky infrared survey mission also up in space now. WISE has already observed more than 430 near-Earth objects -- of these, more than 110 are newly discovered.In the future, both Spitzer and WISE will tell us even more about the "flavors" of near-Earth objects. This could reveal new clues about how the cosmic objects might have dotted our young planet with water and organics -- ingredients needed to kick-start life.Other authors of the paper include Cristina Thomas, also from Northern Arizona University; Michael Mueller and Marco Delbo of the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Nice, France; Joseph Hora, Giovanni Fazio, Howard Smith and Tim Spahr of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.; Alan Harris of the DLR Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, Germany (DLR is Germany's space agency and stands for Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt); Bidushi Bhattacharya of the NASA Herschel Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena; Steve Chesley and Amy Mainzer of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; Bill Bottke of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colo.; Josh Emery of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Bryan Penprase of the Pomona College, Claremont, Calif.; and John Stansberry of the University of Arizona, Tucson.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. For more information about Spitzer, visithttp://spitzer.caltech.edu/andhttp://www.nasa.gov/spitzer.JPL manages the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The principal investigator, Edward Wright, is at UCLA. The mission was competitively selected under NASA's Explorers Program managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory, Logan, Utah, and the spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. More information is online athttp://www.nasa.gov/wiseandhttp://wise.astro.ucla.edu.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-turns-to-the-cloud-for-help-with-next-generation-earth-missions

NASA Turns to the Cloud for Help With Next-Generation Earth Missions

As satellites collect larger and larger amounts of data, engineers and researchers are implementing solutions to manage these huge increases.

The cutting-edge Earth science satellites launching in the next couple of years will give more detailed views of our planet than ever before. We’ll be able to track small-scale ocean features like coastal currents that move nutrients vital to marine food webs, monitor how much fresh water flows through lakes and rivers, and spot movement in Earth’s surface of less than half an inch (a centimeter). But these satellites will also produce a deluge of data that has engineers and scientists setting up systems in the cloud capable of processing, storing, and analyzing all of that digital information.“About five or six years ago, there was a realization that future Earth missions were going to be generating a huge volume of data and that the systems we were using would become inadequate very quickly,” said Suresh Vannan, manager of thePhysical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Centerbased at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.Part of the SWOT satellite’s science instrument payload sits in a clean room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory during assembly. By measuring the height of the water in the planet's ocean, lakes, and rivers, researchers can track the volume and location of the finite resource around the world.Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechThe center is one of several under NASA’sEarth Science Data Systemsprogram responsible for processing, archiving, documenting, and distributing data from the agency’s Earth-observing satellites and field projects. The program has been working for several years on a solution to the information-volume challenge by moving its data and data-handling systems from local servers to the cloud – software and computing services that run on the internet instead of locally on someone’s machine.TheSentinel-6 Michael Freilichsatellite, part of the U.S.-European Sentinel-6/Jason-CS (Continuity of Service) mission, is the first NASA satellite to utilize this cloud system, although the amount of data the spacecraft sends back isn’t as large as the data many future satellites will return.Part of the NISAR satellite rests in a thermal vacuum chamber at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in August 2020. The Earth satellite will track subtle changes in the planet's surface as small as 0.4 inches.Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechFull Image DetailsTwo of those forthcoming missions,SWOTandNISAR, will together produce roughly 100 terabytes of data a day. One terabyte is about 1,000 gigabytes – enough digital storage for approximately 250 feature-length movies. SWOT, short for Surface Water and Ocean Topography, will produce about 20 terabytes of science data a day while the NISAR (NASA-Indian Space Research Organisation Synthetic Aperture Radar) mission will generate roughly 80 terabytes daily. Data from SWOT will be archived with the Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center while data from NISAR will be handled by theAlaska Satellite Facility Distributed Active Archive Center. NASA’s current Earth science data archive is around 40 petabyes (1 petabyte is 1,000 terabytes), but by 2025 – a couple of years after SWOT and NISAR are launched – the archive is expected to hold more than 245 petabytes of data.Both NISAR and SWOT will use radar-based instruments to gather information. Targeting a 2023 launch, NISAR will monitor the planet’s surface, collecting data on environmental characteristics including shifts in the land associated with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, changes to Earth’s ice sheets and glaciers, and fluctuations in agricultural activities, wetlands, and the size of forests.Explore this 3D model of the SWOT satellite by zooming in and out, or clicking and dragging the image around. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechSet for a 2022 launch, SWOT will monitor the height of the planet’s surface water, both ocean and freshwater, and will help researchers compile the first survey of the world’s fresh water and small-scale ocean currents. SWOT is being jointly developed by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Etudes Spatial.“This is a new era for Earth observation missions, and the huge amount of data they will generate requires a new era for data handling,” said Kevin Murphy, chief science data officer for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “NASA is not just working across the agency to facilitate efficient access to a common cloud infrastructure, we’re also training the science community to access, analyze, and use that data.”Faster DownloadsCurrently, Earth science satellites send data back to ground stations where engineers turn the raw information from ones and zeroes into measurements that people can use and understand. Processing the raw data increases the file size, but for older missions that send back relatively smaller amounts of information, this isn’t a huge problem. The measurements are then sent to a data archive that keeps the information on servers. In general, when a researcher wants to use a dataset, they log on to a website, download the data they want, and then work with it on their machine.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERHowever, with missions like SWOT and NISAR, that won’t be feasible for most scientists. If someone wanted to download a day’s worth of information from SWOT onto their computer, they’d need 20 laptops, each capable of storing a terabyte of data. If a researcher wanted to download four days’ worth of data from NISAR, it would take about a year to perform on an average home internet connection. Working with data stored in the cloud means scientists won’t have to buy huge hard drives to download the data or wait months as numerous large files download to their system. “Processing and storing high volumes of data in the cloud will enable a cost-effective, efficient approach to the study of big-data problems,” said Lee-Lueng Fu, JPL project scientist for SWOT.Infrastructure limitations won’t be as much of a concern, either, since organizations won’t have to pay to store mind-boggling amounts of data or maintain the physical space for all those hard drives. “We just don’t have the additional physical server space at JPL with enough capacity and flexibility to support both NISAR and SWOT,” said Hook Hua, a JPL science data systems architect for both missions.NASA engineers have already taken advantage of this aspect of cloud computing for a proof-of-concept product using data from Sentinel-1. The satellite is an ESA (European Space Agency) mission that also looks at changes to Earth’s surface, although it uses a different type of radar instrument than the ones NISAR will use. Working with Sentinel-1 data in the cloud, engineers produced a colorized map showing the change in Earth’s surface from more vegetated areas to deserts. “It took a week of constant computing in the cloud, using the equivalent of thousands of machines,” said Paul Rosen, JPL project scientist for NISAR. “If you tried to do this outside the cloud, you’d have had to buy all those thousands of machines.”Cloud computing won’t replace all of the ways in which researchers work with science datasets, but at least for Earth science, it’s certainly gaining ground, said Alex Gardner, a NISAR science team member at JPL who studies glaciers and sea level rise. He envisions that most of his analyses will happen elsewhere in the near future instead of on his laptop or personal server. “I fully expect in five to 10 years, I won’t have much of a hard drive on my computer and I will be exploring the new firehose of data in the cloud,” he said.To explore NASA’s publicly available datasets, visit:https://data.nasa.gov/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-insight-flexes-its-arm-while-its-mole-hits-pause

NASA's InSight Flexes Its Arm While Its 'Mole' Hits Pause

Now that the lander's robotic arm has helped the mole get underground, it will resume science activities that have been on hold.

NASA's InSight lander has been using its robotic arm to help the heat probe known as the "mole" burrow into Mars. The mission is providing the first look atthe Red Planet's deep interiorto reveal details about the formation of Mars and, ultimately, all rocky planets, including Earth.Akin to a 16-inch-long (40-centimeter-long) pile driver, the self-hammering mole has experienced difficulty getting into the Martian soil since February 2019. It's mostly buried now, thanks to recent efforts topush down on the molewith the scoop on the end of the robotic arm. But whether it will be able to dig deep enough - at least 10 feet (3 meters) - to get an accurate temperature reading of the planet remains to be seen. Images taken by InSight during a Saturday, June 20, hammering session show bits of soil jostling within the scoop - possible evidence that the mole had begun bouncing in place, knocking the bottom of the scoop.While the campaign to save the mole continues, the arm will be used to help carry out other science and engineering work. Here's what you can expect in the months ahead from the mission, which is led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.What's next for the mole?The mole is part of an instrument called the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package, orHP3, that the German Aerospace Center (DLR) provided NASA. While the scoop on the end of InSight's arm has blocked the mole frombacking out of its pit again, it also blocks the arm's camera from seeing the mole and the pit that has formed around it. Over the next few weeks, the team will move the arm out of the way to better assess how the soil and mole are interacting.The mole needs friction from soil in order to burrow. Ironically, loose soil provides that friction as it collapses around the mole. But the soil beneath InSight has proven to be cement-like duricrust, with dirt granules that stick together. As a result, recoil from the mole's self-hammering action causes it to bounce in place. So the team's next moves may be to provide that friction by scraping or chopping nearby soil to move it into the pit it's in.More thoughts about the mole's recent progress can be found on ablogwritten by HP3's principal investigator, Tilman Spohn of DLR.What's next for InSight's arm?InSight landed on Mars on Nov. 26, 2018. Its robotic arm subsequently set HP3, a seismometer and the seismometer's Wind and Thermal Shield on to the planet's surface. While the arm has been key to helping the mole, scientists and engineers are eager to use the arm's camera to pan over InSight's solar panels, something they haven't done since July 17, 2019.It's the dusty season on Mars, and the panels are likely coated with a fine layer of reddish-brown particles. Estimating how much dust is on the solar panels will let engineers better understand InSight's daily power supply.Scientists also want to resume using the arm to spot meteors streaking across the night sky, as they did earlier in the mission. Doing so could help them predict how often meteors strike this part of the planet. They could also cross-check to see whether data from InSight's seismometer reveals a meteor impact on Mars shortly afterward.What's next for the seismometer?InSight's seismometer, called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), detected its first marsquake nearly three months after starting its measurements in January 2019. By the fall of 2019, it was detecting a potential quake or two per day. While SEIS has detected more than 480 seismic signals overall, the rate has dropped to less than one per week.This rate change is tied to seasonal variations of atmospheric turbulence, which creates noise that covers up the tiny quake signals. Despite the protective Wind and Thermal Shield, SEIS is sensitive enough that shaking from the wind hitting the shield can make quakes harder to isolate.More About InSightJPL manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission.A number of European partners, including France's Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are supporting the InSight mission. CNES provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument to NASA, with the principal investigator at IPGP (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris). Significant contributions for SEIS came from IPGP; the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany; the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) in Switzerland; Imperial College London and Oxford University in the United Kingdom; and JPL. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument, with significant contributions from the Space Research Center (CBK) of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland. Spain's Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) supplied the temperature and wind sensors.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/from-nasa-jpls-mailroom-to-mars-and-beyond

From NASA JPL's Mailroom to Mars and Beyond

Bill Allen has thrived as the mechanical systems design lead for three Mars rover missions, but he got his start as a teenager sorting letters for the NASA center.

Don't tell Bill Allen he can't take risks.Allen was just 17 years old when he first set foot on the grounds of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to join the mailroom in the summer of 1981. Voyager had recently encountered Saturn, and the Lab was crawling with members of the media."It was like walking into a football stadium in the middle of the touchdown. It was electric," he says. "This is something that doesn't go on anywhere else in the world, and to be immersed in it with your first footsteps was crazy. That alone was awe-inspiring."Cut to 2020, and the veteran mechanical engineer has been with JPL for more than 35 years. As someone who's often tapped to be part of high-stakes problem-solving "tiger teams," he's worked as the systems design lead for the Mars Exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity, and thesoon-to-land Mars Perseverance rover- each mission more challenging than the last.Get the Latest JPL NewsSubscribe to the NewsletterThe size of a small SUV, Curiosity dwarfed Spirit and Opportunity, landing via the mind-boggling "sky crane" maneuver, in which a descent stage lowers the rover onto Mars. With Perseverance, the team had to "grow the rover" more, Allen says, to accommodate a whole new suite of instruments and the intricate system the rover will rely on to take samples from Mars and deposit them in tubes for a future mission to return to Earth."We took on the most complicated mission we've ever done while we're changing our infrastructure," he says. "This is like fixing your car while you're driving it."Mechanical MindsetWhile Allen's initiation at JPL may have been dizzying, his high school years were hardly a foreshadowing of the success to come. "The first two years of high school, I was never in the mindset of what I wanted to do," he says.Allen grew up in West Los Angeles, the middle child of five siblings. His mother was a child development specialist, and his father owned and operated a landscaping business. In his youth, he was "always tinkering with things," Allen says. "I would take apart anything and everything. Whatever my parents gave me, such as bikes, I demolished. I would take it apart, modify it, make it better."It was only at the end of his junior year that Allen began thinking about life after high school. That's when he decided to study engineering. But there was lost ground to cover. "Most students had already decided," he says. "They had taken much more advanced math and were further along than me, so I took summer classes to catch up."Allen wound up at JPL only by serendipity. His uncle, who worked at JPL in electronic packaging, saw a job listing for the Lab's mailroom and suggested his nephew apply as a way to earn extra money the summer before college. "I didn't even know what JPL was," Allen says.Allen with engineering models of the (clockwise from bottom) Sojourner rover, a Mars Exploration Rover, and Curiosity in JPL's Mars Yard in the early 2000's.Credit: NASA/Caltech-JPLChallenges AcceptedBut he was a quick learner. Early in the mornings, he would sort the mail, then jump into the mailroom's Jeep and deliver throughout the day on JPL's sprawling grounds. (This was before the days of email and there was, he says, alotof mail.) That was all he needed: "When I saw what was going on here that first summer, I wanted to come back."That fall, Allen left to study engineering physics at Oregon State University, but he landed a spot two years later in a new program at JPL: a six-month co-op - similar to today's internship program - with 20 other students. "It was quite frankly amazing," he says of the experience. "We were treated like assets."The co-op included weekly field trips, such as visits to Edwards Air Force Base to watch shuttle launches, booster tests, and experimental crash landings. It wasn't unusual for an astronaut or lead scientist to drop in for a talk with the students.Students were also assigned hands-on tasks that were integral to the flight hardware and that spurred creative thinking. Allen helped to redesignGalileo's mounting for its star scanner, which uses the position of stars to help the spacecraft navigate.After his co-op ended, Allen would return to JPL to spend all his school holidays co-oping. When Allen graduated in 1986, he had an offer waiting for him: a full-time position at JPL as a mechanical design engineer.Making History, Breaking RecordsAllen dove headfirst into major tasks early on at JPL, such as the development of the 70-meter Deep Space Network antenna and 34-meter waveguide beam designs, as well as mission support for Galileo. He wound up working onCassinifor 10 years, seeing it through the design cycle from start to finish."It was very fulfilling to work on a dedicated project," he says, calling Cassini "the last of the old-school projects," where the design of a major mission could take 10 or more years.Allen soon found himself with the near-impossible job of helping to design a rover that would fit inside theMars Pathfinderlander and then unfold itself on Mars. And it needed to be designed in record time: three years.To meet the deadline, the team pitched reusing the architecture of Mars Pathfinder, which had successfully landed and deployed the first Mars rover, Sojourner, in July 1997. Not only did NASA end up selecting their proposal, but also requesting two rovers - what would become theMars Exploration RoversSpirit and Opportunity."There are not many times when you're given what you've asked," he recalls. "In this case, it was, 'Oh, you wanttwoof them? OK, here we go.'"Over the next three years, a team of managers, engineers, and technicians pushed through high stress levels and around-the-clock work schedules to complete the rovers, an experience Allen describes as one of the most challenging - and rewarding - endeavors he's taken on."Those rovers had my blood, tears, soul, and DNA," Allen says. "To have them touch down on another planet was as surreal as it gets."Quantum Leaps and Tiger TeamsWhile those twin Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) tested JPL's ability to produce a rover in a short time period, theCuriosityrover - originally known as Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) - came with its own challenges."Going from MER to MSL was a quantum leap," Allen says. "MER was re-cooked from Pathfinder, but MSL was as close to a clean slate as you can get. We knew how to design rovers, but this one was going to be much bigger and do much more."Of course, a clean slate meant a whole new slate of problems. Well after the design implementation, the team learned that there was an unexpected issue with the exhaust plume from the thrusters used during descent and landing.The mission set up a "tiger team" to find a solution and asked Allen to join. "When a problem arises on a mission," he explains, "they put together a team of highly focused individuals; it's cross-talent. Those are always the ones I enjoy the most."Over the next year and a half, the tiger team met "anywhere and everywhere" to understand the problem, trade concepts to solve the problem, and then to validate the concepts.On Mars in 2014, after the MSL descent stage lowered Curiosity with cables onto the surface of Mars via the sky crane maneuver, Allen remembers the feeling of awe that it all worked out."We looked at everything we had done and thought, 'This is the craziest thing we've done so far.' It was super-challenging, all the things that had to come together to make this work."Allen watched the landing from Beckman Auditorium at Caltech, which manages JPL for NASA. "There were a lot of tears," he recalls. "I was with the people I spent time in the trenches with to take in the landing, and you could tell everybody had the same reactions - it was deeper than words can provide."PerseveringAfter being part of JPL's most historic Mars explorers, Allen felt ready to find challenges beyond rovers. But then he learned more about the Mars 2020 mission and was intrigued: The Mars 2020 team (the rover hadn't yet been named Perseverance) would need to preserve the architecture of Curiosity but create a new design for the rover, which would collect the first samples from another planet to be returned to Earth on a future mission.Allen joined the Mars 2020 tiger team.On paper, the idea sounded good, but the reality of a whole new suite of instruments turned out to be far more difficult. The work could often feel as terrifying as it was exhilarating. "A problem can pop up anytime," Allen says. "Someone wakes up at 3 a.m. with a nightmare they didn't consider and boom, we go look at it."But Allen never loses sight of the joy behind the work."Bill is a glass-is-always-half-full kind of guy, even if it's got two drops of water in it," says Randy Lindemann, who has worked with Allen for more than 23 years. "He's got the most positive, upbeat attitude of anybody I've ever worked with at JPL."Now, as Perseverance prepares to land on the Red Planet on Feb. 18, 2021, he's already working his next challenge: helping design the Mars Sample Retrieval Lander.But while Allen thrives on the challenge, that's not necessarily what keeps him going."If I could summarize the best thing that's happened to me from being at JPL, it's working with such brilliant minds," he says. "When you consider we do what no one else is doing on the planet, the problems are unique and sometimes the solutions are as well. To be in the mix of those minds to solve some of these problems - it's been extraordinary."

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/seven-ways-mars-insight-is-different

Seven Ways Mars InSight is Different

NASA has sent lots of missions to Mars, but InSight will stand apart in a number of ways.

NASA's Mars InSight lander team is preparing to ship the spacecraft from Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, where it was built and tested, to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where it will become the first interplanetary mission to launch from the West Coast. The project is led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.We know what "The Red Planet" looks like from the outside -- but what's going on under the surface of Mars? Find out more in the 60-second video from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.NASA has a long and successful track record at Mars. Since 1965, it has flown by, orbited, landed and roved across the surface of the Red Planet. What can InSight -- planned for launch in May -- do that hasn't been done before?InSight is the first mission to study the deep interior of Mars.A dictionary definition of "insight" is to see the inner nature of something. InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) will do just that. InSight will take the "vital signs" of Mars: its pulse (seismology), temperature (heat flow), and its reflexes (radio science). It will be the first thorough check-up since the planet formed 4.5 billion years ago.InSight will teach us about planets like our own.InSight's team hopes that by studying the deep interior of Mars, we can learn how other rocky planets form. Earth and Mars were molded from the same primordial stuff more than 4 billion years ago, but then became quite different. Why didn't they share the same fate?When it comes to rocky planets, we've only studied one in great detail: Earth. By comparing Earth's interior to that of Mars, InSight's team hopes to better understand our solar system. What they learn might even aid the search for Earth-like exoplanets, narrowing down which ones might be able to support life. So while InSight is a Mars mission, it's also more than a Mars mission.InSight will try to detect marsquakes for the first time.One key way InSight will peer into the Martian interior is by studying motion underground -- what we know as marsquakes. NASA has not attempted to do this kind of science since the Viking mission. Both Viking landers had their seismometers on top of the spacecraft, where they produced noisy data. InSight's seismometer will be placed directly on the Martian surface, which will provide much cleaner data.Scientists have seen a lot of evidence suggesting Mars has quakes. But unlike quakes on Earth, which are mostly caused by tectonic plates moving around, marsquakes would be caused by other types of tectonic activity, such as volcanism and cracks forming in the planet's crust. In addition, meteor impacts can create seismic waves, which InSight will try to detect.Each marsquake would be like a flashbulb that illuminates the structure of the planet's interior. By studying how seismic waves pass through the different layers of the planet (the crust, mantle and core), scientists can deduce the depths of these layers and what they're made of. In this way, seismology is like taking an X-ray of the interior of Mars.Scientists think it's likely they'll see between a dozen and a hundred marsquakes over the course of two Earth years. The quakes are likely to be no bigger than a 6.0 on the Richter scale, which would be plenty of energy for revealing secrets about the planet's interior.First interplanetary launch from the West CoastAll of NASA's interplanetary launches to date have been from Florida, in part because the physics of launching off the East Coast are better for journeys to other planets. But InSight will break the mold by launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It will be the first launch to another planet from the West Coast.InSight will ride on top of a powerful Atlas V 401 rocket, which allows for a planetary trajectory to Mars from either coast. Vandenberg was ultimately chosen because it had more availability during InSight's launch period.A whole new region will get to see an interplanetary launch when InSight rockets into the sky. In a clear, pre-dawn sky, the launch may be visible in California from Santa Maria to San Diego.First interplanetary CubeSatThe rocket that will loft InSight beyond Earth will also launch a separate NASA technology experiment: two mini-spacecraft called Mars Cube One, or MarCO. These briefcase-sized CubeSats will fly on their own path to Mars behind InSight.Their objective is to relay back InSight data as it enters the Martian atmosphere and lands. It will be a first test of miniaturized CubeSat technology at another planet, which researchers hope can offer new capabilities to future missions.If successful, the MarCOs could represent a new kind of data relay to Earth. InSight's success is independent of its CubeSat tag-alongs.InSight could teach us how Martian volcanoes were formed.Mars is home to some impressive volcanic features. That includes Tharsis -- a plateau with some of the biggest volcanoes in the solar system. Heat escaping from deep within the planet drives the formation of these types of features, as well as many others on rocky planets. InSight includes a self-hammering heat probe that will burrow down to 16 feet (5 meters) into the Martian soil to measure the heat flow from the planet's interior for the first time. Combining the rate of heat flow with other InSight data will reveal how energy within the planet drives changes on the surface.Mars is a time machineStudying Mars lets us travel to the ancient past. While Earth and Venus have tectonic systems that have destroyed most of the evidence of their early history, much of the Red Planet has remained static for more than 3 billion years. Because Mars is just one-third the size of Earth and Venus, it contains less energy to power the processes that change a planet's structure. That makes it a fossil planet in many ways, with the secrets of our solar system's early history locked deep inside.Learn more about InSight's mission goals and instrumentation at a live public talk, part ofJPL's von Karman lecture series, on Thursday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. PST (10 p.m. EST). The event will be streamed live onhttp://YouTube.com/NASAJPL/live.More information about InSight is at:https://mars.nasa.gov/insight

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-oco-2-brings-sharp-focus-on-global-carbon

NASA's OCO-2 Brings Sharp Focus on Global Carbon

In July 2014, NASA will launch the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) to study the fate of carbon dioxide worldwide.

Simply by breathing, humans have played a small part in the planet-wide balancing act called the carbon cycle throughout our existence. However, in the last few hundred years, we have taken a larger role. Our activities, such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation, are pushing the cycle out of its natural balance, adding more and more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.Natural processes are working hard to keep the carbon cycle in balance by absorbing about half of our carbon emissions, limiting the extent of climate change. There's a lot we don't know about these processes, including where they are occurring and how they might change as the climate warms. To understand and prepare for the carbon cycle of the future, we have an urgent need to find out.In July 2014, NASA will launch the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) to study the fate of carbon dioxide worldwide. "Right now, the land and the ocean are taking up almost half of the carbon dioxide we add to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, but the future is fundamentally unknown," said Paul Wennberg, a professor of atmospheric chemistry at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "OCO-2 is a key to getting answers." The mission has been developed and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.Carbon dioxide is both one of the best measured greenhouse gases and one of the least measured. The emissions that remain in the atmosphere become evenly distributed around the globe in a matter of months. As a result, the average atmospheric concentration can be monitored well by existing ground stations (about 160 worldwide). The other half of our emissions -- the half that is being absorbed through natural processes into the land or the ocean -- is not evenly distributed. To understand where that carbon dioxide is going, we need precise, comprehensive, ongoing data about carbon dioxide absorption and emission by forests, the ocean and many other regions. For some of these regions, we have far too few observations."A research ship moves about the speed of a 10-speed bicycle," said Scott Doney, director of the Ocean and Climate Change Institute at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Mass. "Think about the size of the ocean. There's only so much research you can do at the speed of a bicycle." Oceanographers have made up some of the observational deficit by contracting with shipping lines to gather data along commercial routes. But there's little shipping in the Southern Ocean, and Doney said that's a region of high concern. "With warming, we expect big changes. The winds are changing there, and carbon dioxide uptake may change too."On land, Earth's great forests might be the least understood areas. In northern Siberia, a region with no permanent settlements and few roads, there are only six year-round monitoring sites across seven time zones. Forests remove carbon from the air during photosynthesis and store it in wood and roots, making these forests what scientists call carbon sinks. But droughts and wildfires can turn forests into carbon sources, releasing the stored carbon back into the atmosphere. We don't know when and how often forests cross the line from sink to source.OCO-2 will not be the first satellite to measure carbon dioxide, but it's the first with the observational strategy, precision, resolution and coverage needed to answer these questions about these little-monitored regions, according to Ralph Basilio, OCO-2 project manager at JPL.OCO-2's scientific instrument uses spectrometers, which split sunlight into a spectrum of component colors, or wavelengths. Like all other molecules, carbon dioxide molecules absorb only certain colors of light, producing a unique pattern of dark features in the spectrum. The intensity of the dark features increases as the number of carbon dioxide molecules increases in the air that the spectrometer is looking through.Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere are measured in parts per million, the number of molecules of carbon dioxide there are in every million molecules of air. That number is currently around 400. OCO-2's spectrometers can detect changes of one or two carbon dioxide molecules out of the 400 -- an unprecedented level of precision, and one that scientists think will be adequate to detect changes in natural sources and sinks, once enough measurements have been collected.OCO-2 will collect 24 measurements a second over Earth's sunlit hemisphere, totaling more than a million measurements each day. Fewer than 20 percent of these measurements will be sufficiently cloud-free to allow an accurate estimate of carbon dioxide, but that number will still yield 100 to 200 times as many measurements as the currently observing Japanese Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) mission. The measurements will be used as input for global atmospheric models. Combined with data on winds and other conditions, the OCO-2 data will allow modelers to better locate carbon sources and sinks at regional scales -- areas the size of France or Texas."With atmospheric carbon dioxide at unprecedented levels, our sense of urgency has only increased," said Basilio. "What will happen if we keep emitting carbon dioxide at the same rate? The ultimate goal for OCO-2 is to provide data so that organizations and individuals throughout the world can make better-informed decisions about carbon."For more information about OCO-2, visit:https://oco.jpl.nasa.govOCO-2 is one of five new NASA missions launching in 2014. NASA monitors Earth's vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to see better how our planet is changing. The agency shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.For more information about NASA's Earth science activities in 2014, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/earthrightnow

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/historic-deep-space-network-antenna-starts-major-surgery

Historic Deep Space Network Antenna Starts Major Surgery

Like a hard-driving athlete whose joints need help, the giant "Mars antenna" at NASA's Deep Space Network site in Goldstone, Calif. has begun major, delicate surgery.

Like a hard-driving athlete whose joints need help, the giant "Mars antenna" at NASA's Deep Space Network site in Goldstone, Calif. has begun major, delicate surgery. The operation on the historic 70-meter-wide (230-foot) antenna, which has received data and sent commands to deep space missions for over 40 years, will replace a portion of the hydrostatic bearing assembly. This assembly enables the antenna to rotate horizontally.The rigorous engineering plans call for lifting about 4 million kilograms (9 million pounds) of finely tuned scientific instruments a height of about 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) so workers can replace the steel runner, walls and supporting grout. This is the first time the runner has been replaced on the Mars antenna.The operation, which will cost about $1.25 million, has a design life of 20 years."This antenna has been a workhorse for NASA/JPL for over 40 years," said Alaudin Bhanji, Deep Space Network Project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "It has provided a critical lifeline to dozens of missions, while enabling scientific results that have enriched the hearts and minds of generations. We want it to continue doing so."The repair will be done slowly because of the scale of the task, with an expected completion in early November. During that time, workers will also be replacing the elevation bearings, which enable the antenna to track up and down from the horizon. The network will still be able to provide full coverage for deep space missions by maximizing use of the two other 70-meter antennas at Deep Space complexes near Madrid, Spain, and Canberra, Australia, and arraying several smaller 34-meter (110-foot) antennas together.NASA built the Mars antenna when missions began venturing beyond the orbit of Earth and needed more powerful communications tools. The Mars antenna was the first of the giant antennas designed to receive weak signals and transmit very strong ones far out into space, featuring a 64-meter-wide (210-foot) dish when it became operational in 1966. (The dish was upgraded from 64 to 70 meters in 1988 to enable the antenna to track NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft as it encountered Neptune and Uranus.)While officially dubbed Deep Space Station 14, the antenna picked up the Mars name from its first task: tracking the Mariner 4 spacecraft, which had been lost by smaller antennas after its historic flyby of Mars. Through its history, the Mars antenna has supported missions including Pioneer, Cassini and the Mars Exploration Rovers. It received Neil Armstrong's famous communiqué from Apollo 11: "That's one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind." It has also helped with imaging nearby planets, asteroids and comets by bouncing its powerful radar signal off the objects of study.A flat, stable surface is critical for the Mars antenna to rotate slowly as it tracks spacecraft. Three steel pads support the weight of the antenna rotating structure, dish and other communications equipment above the circular steel runner. A film of oil about the thickness of a sheet of paper -- about 0.25 millimeters (0.010 inches) -- is produced by a hydraulic system to float the three pads.After decades of constant use, oil has seeped through the runner joints, slowly degrading the structural integrity of the cement-based grout that supports it. Rather than continuing on a weekly schedule to adjust shims underneath the runner to keep it flat, Deep Space Network managers decided to replace the whole runner assembly."As with any large, rotating structure that has operated almost 24 hours per day, seven days per week for over 40 years, we eventually have to replace major elements," said Wayne Sible, the network's deputy project manager at JPL. "We need to replace those worn parts so we can get another 20 years of valuable service from this national treasure."Over the next few months, workers will lay a new epoxy grout that is impervious to oil and fit the antenna with a thicker runner with more tightly sealed joints. They will then test that the rotation is smooth before turning the antenna back on again."The runner replacement task has been in development for close to two years," said JPL's Peter Hames, who is responsible for maintaining the network's antennas. "We've been testing and evaluating modern epoxy grouts, which were unavailable when the antenna was built, updating the design of the runner and designing a replacement process that has to be performed without completely disassembling the antenna. We've had to make sure we've reviewed it for practicality and safety."JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Deep Space Network for NASA Headquarters, Washington. More information about the Deep Space Network is online at:http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn/index.html.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/art-science-of-space-navigation-is-topic-of-free-jpl-lecture

Art & Science of Space Navigation Is Topic of Free JPL Lecture

Navigating spacecraft across the solar system has been likened to celestial billiards, where an artful "bumper shot" may be needed to get from one planet to another. A Jet Propulsion Laboratory spacecraft navigation expert will explain the art and science of this arcane field in a public lecture called "Navigation: Cruisin' Through Space," to be held Thursday, Oct. 19 at JPL and Friday, Oct. 20 at Pasadena City College.

Navigating spacecraft across the solar system has been likened to celestial billiards, where an artful "bumper shot" may be needed to get from one planet to another. A Jet Propulsion Laboratory spacecraft navigation expert will explain the art and science of this arcane field in a public lecture called "Navigation: Cruisin' Through Space," to be held Thursday, Oct. 19 at JPL and Friday, Oct. 20 at Pasadena City College.Both lectures are at 7 p.m. Parking and admission are free and on a first-come, first-served basis.Dr. Donald Gray, veteran of numerous space missions, will explain how JPL became the world leader in space navigation by delivering spacecraft to planets, comets, and asteroids throughout the solar system with unprecedented accuracy. Gray will also describe experiences that highlight the exuberance, nail biting, and triumph of innovation inherent in the field.Gray, who has been with JPL for more than 25 years, has worked on the navigation teams of the Viking missions to Mars, the Voyager missions to the outer planets, and the Cassini mission to Saturn. He is currently working on Genesis, scheduled to launch next year on a mission to gather a sample of particles that stream outward from the Sun and return them to Earth for study.Gray received a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland in 1955, and a master's degree and doctorate in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1963 and 1967. Gray is the recipient of two NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals and a NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, among the agency's highest honors.The lecture at JPL will be held in the von Karman Auditorium, located at 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena. The Pasadena City College lecture will be held in The Forum at the campus, located at 1570 E. Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena. More information on the von Karman Lecture Series can be found athttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/lectureor by calling (818) 354-0112. For directions to JPL, seehttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/tours/routes.html.JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-phoenix-lander-has-an-oven-full-of-martian-soil

NASA's Phoenix Lander Has An Oven Full Of Martian Soil

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has filled its first oven with Martian soil.

TUCSON, Ariz. - NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has filled its first oven with Martian soil."We have an oven full," Phoenix co-investigator Bill Boynton of the University of Arizona, Tucson, said today. "It took 10 seconds to fill the oven. The ground moved."Boynton leads the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer instrument, or TEGA, for Phoenix. The instrument has eight separate tiny ovens to bake and sniff the soil to assess its volatile ingredients, such as water.The lander's Robotic Arm delivered a partial scoopful of clumpy soil from a trench informally called "Baby Bear" to the number 4 oven on TEGA last Friday, June 6, which was 12 days after landing.A screen covers each of TEGA's eight ovens. The screen is to prevent larger bits of soil from clogging the narrow port to each oven so that fine particles fill the oven cavity, which is no wider than a pencil lead. Each TEGA chute also has a whirligig mechanism that vibrates the screen to help shake small particles through.Only a few particles got through when the screen on oven number 4 was vibrated on June 6, 8 and 9.Boynton said that the oven might have filled because of the cumulative effects of all the vibrating, or because of changes in the soil's cohesiveness as it sat for days on the top of the screen."There's something very unusual about this soil, from a place on Mars we've never been before," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona. "We're interested in learning what sort of chemical and mineral activity has caused the particles to clump and stick together."Plans prepared by the Phoenix team for the lander's activities on Thursday, June 12 include sprinkling Martian soil on the delivery port for the spacecraft's Optical Microscope and taking additional portions of a high-resolution color panorama of the lander's surroundings.The Phoenix mission is led by Smith with project management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, located in Denver. International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/scientists-track-perfect-storm-on-mars

Scientists Track 'Perfect Storm' on Mars

A pair of eagle-eyed NASA spacecraft -- the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) and Hubble Space Telescope -- are giving amazed scientists a ringside seat to the biggest global dust storm seen on Mars in several decades.

A pair of eagle-eyed NASA spacecraft -- the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) and Hubble Space Telescope -- are giving amazed scientists a ringside seat to the biggest global dust storm seen on Mars in several decades.The Martian dust storm, larger by far than any seen on Earth, has raised a cloud of dust that has engulfed the entire planet for the past three months. As the Sun warms the airborne dust the upper atmospheric temperature has been raised by about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. This abrupt onset of global warming in Mars' thin atmosphere is happening at the same time as the planet's surface has chilled precipitously under the constant dust shroud."This is an opportunity of a lifetime," said Hubble observer Dr. James Bell of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. "We have a phenomenal, unprecedented view from these two spacecraft.""The beauty of Mars Global Surveyor is that we have almost two Martian years of continuous coverage and this is the first time during the mission that we have seen such a storm," added Dr. Richard Zurek of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.This storm is being closely watched by the team operating NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft, which is heading toward a rendezvous with the Red Planet later this month. The Odyssey team plans to "toe-dip" its way into the Martian atmosphere, gradually deepening its pass through the atmosphere until the desired drag levels are found. A warm atmosphere "puffs up," creating more drag on the spacecraft.The thermal emission spectrometer on Global Surveyor has been tracking the blooming dust storm by measuring temperature changes that trace the amount and location of dust in the atmosphere. Both Hubble and Global Surveyor caught the storm erupting in late June, which was unusually early in the spring of the Martian northern hemisphere compared to previous large storms. Hubble doesn't have continuous Mars coverage, but does show the whole planet in a single snapshot and shows the full range of dust activity from sunrise to sunset.Planetary scientists photograph the entire planet every day using the Global Surveyor's camera. This has allowed them to pinpoint the actual location of places where dust was being raised, and see it migrate and interact with other Martian weather phenomena and surface topography. This also has provided them an unprecedented, detailed look at how storms start and "blossom" across the orange, arid planet."What we have learned is that this is not a single, continuing storm, but rather a planet-wide series of events that were triggered in and around the Hellas basin," said Dr. Mike Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, Inc., San Diego, lead investigator on the camera. "What began as a local event stimulated separate storms many thousands of kilometers away. We saw the effects propagate very rapidly across the equator -- something quite unheard of in previous experience -- and move with the Southern Hemisphere jet stream to the east.""By the time the first tendrils of dust injected into the stratosphere by the initial events circumnavigated the Southern Hemisphere, which took about a week, separate storms were raging in three main centers. The most intriguing observation is that the regional storm in Claritas/Syria has been active every day since the end of the first week of July," said Malin.After three months, the storm is beginning to wane. The planet's shrouded surface has cooled, and this allowed the winds to die down and the fine dust to begin settling. However, Mars is approaching the closest point of its orbit to the Sun. Once the atmosphere begins to clear, the return of unfiltered solar radiation may trigger additional high winds and kick up the dust all over again. This "one-two punch" has been seen in previous Mars storms for centuries."Understanding global dust storms, such as that which we have witnessed this year, is a vital part of the science goals of the Mars Exploration Program," said Dr. James Garvin, NASA's lead scientist for Mars exploration, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. "Such extreme climate events could potentially provide clues to how climate changes operate on Mars, now and in the past, and provide linkages to the record of sediments on the planet."Mars Global Surveyor is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.NOTE TO EDITORS: Electronic images and additional information are available on the Internet at:http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2001/31http://hubble.stsci.edu/go/newsand via links inhttp://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/latest.html.For more information about the Mars Exploration Program please visit:http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/help-stamp-out-boring-space-acronyms

Help Stamp Out Boring Space Acronyms

Are you confused by the impossible-to-pronounce acronyms sometimes used to identify space missions? You are not alone.

Are you confused by the impossible-to-pronounce acronyms sometimes used to identify space missions? You are not alone.To move away from cryptic acronyms, our nation's space agency is asking your help to find a user-friendly name for a new space-based observatory. It is currently called the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, or SIRTF for short. The observatory will allow scientists to study objects from within our solar system to the distant reaches of the universe. It will see these objects by looking for the heat they radiate in the infrared wavelength. For example, the mission will look for dusty discs around other stars where planets might be forming."We are hoping to tap the creativity of the public to find a name suitable for this important mission that will help enrich our knowledge of the universe." said Doris Daou, an education and public outreach representative for the mission.The Space Infrared Telescope Facility is the fourth and final component of NASA's Great Observatories Program, which includes the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. Together, these four space-based missions enable scientists to study space across many different wavelengths of light.The deadline for nominations is December 20, 2001. The winner will be flown to Kennedy Space Center in Florida to witness the launch of the observatory, planned for next year. Up to 200 semi-finalists will receive a letter of recognition and an educational kit. All naming contest participants will be able to print a personalized "Certificate of Participation" upon submission of a valid entry.A short essay explaining the reasons for the suggested name must accompany all submissions. Following NASA's guidelines, names of current or proposed space missions cannot be used, and if the observatory is to be named after a person, that person must be deceased. Submissions are only accepted electronically. The contest is open to all Earthlings, except employees directly affiliated with NASA, JPL or the California Institute of Technology, and their immediate families.For more information on the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, visithttp://sirtf.caltech.edu.JPL manages the Space Infrared Telescope Facility for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/viking-lander-2-mission-concluded

Viking Lander 2 Mission Concluded

NASA's Viking Lander 2 has ceased operating after three and one-half years on the surface of Mars.

NASA's Viking Lander 2 has ceased operating after three and one-half years on the surface of Mars.Flight controllers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory received unintelligible data during scheduled transmission from Lander 2 in mid-March.After analyzing engineering telemetry for several weeks, Viking officials concluded that loss of power in the batteries had led to an automatic shutdown of the cameras and other science instruments.The batteries provided power for the lander to transmit. Primary power source for the batteries and other systems is radioisotope thermoelectric generator -- small nuclear power device.Viking Lander 2 touched down on the surface of Mars Sept. 3, 1976, at 47.7 degrees north latitude. It operated continuously since that time.Lander 2 survived the rigors of two Martian winters, when temperatures dropped as low as 190 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.During its first 20 months on Mars, Lander 2 measured the composition of Mars' atmosphere and soil, continuously monitored the weather, dug many trenches, searched the soil for signs of living microorganisms, and took more than 1,800 pictures.Scientists say Lander 2's most important discovery may be that thin layer of white water-frost covers the ground at the far northern latitudes each winter.For the last two years, most of the lander's instruments were turned off, their missions completed.Scientists had continued to receive weather data and pictures from the lander. Lander 2 continued to operate normally until the problem that began Jan. 31, 1980.Lander 2 was scheduled to send its final science information to Earth on April 11.Viking Lander 1 continues to operate on the Martian surface and send data to Earth once week. Its on-board com puter has been programmed to enable the lander to automatically monitor weather and take pictures, then send the information directly to Earth. It should continue to do so through the 1980s.Viking Orbiter 1 is still operating and later this month will be moved to new orbit around Mars to take high resolution pictures of areas that have not been adequately covered. It is expected to quit working in June or July, when it runs out of attitude-control gas.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-mars-odyssey-orbiter-watches-comet-fly-near

NASA's Mars Odyssey Orbiter Watches Comet Fly Near

The longest-lived robot ever sent to Mars came through its latest challenge in good health, reporting home on schedule after sheltering behind Mars from possible comet dust.

Mars Odyssey Mission Status ReportThe longest-lived robot ever sent to Mars came through its latest challenge in good health, reporting home on schedule after sheltering behind Mars from possible comet dust.NASA's Mars Odyssey was out of communications with Earth, as planned, while conducting observations of comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring on Sunday, Oct. 19, as the comet flew near Mars. The comet sped within about 88,000 miles (139,500 kilometers) of Mars, equivalent to about one-third of the distance between Earth and Earth's moon. Odyssey had performed a maneuver on Aug. 5 to adjust the timing of its orbit so that it would be shielded by Mars itself during the minutes, around 1 p.m. PDT (4 p.m. EDT) today, when computer modeling projected a slight risk from high-velocity dust particles in the comet's tail."The telemetry received from Odyssey this afternoon confirms not only that the spacecraft is in fine health but also that it conducted the planned observations of comet Siding Spring within hours of the comet's closest approach to Mars," said Odyssey Mission Manager Chris Potts of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., speaking from mission operations center at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.Comet Siding Spring observations were made by the orbiter's Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS). Resulting images are expected in coming days after the data is downlinked to Earth and processed. THEMIS is also scheduled to record a combined image of the comet and a portion of Mars later this week. In addition, the Odyssey mission is using the spacecraft's Neutron Spectrometer and High Energy Neutron detector to assess possible effects on Mars' atmosphere of dust and gas from the comet.Three NASA Mars orbiters, two Mars rovers and other assets on Earth and in space are studying comet Siding Spring. This comet is making its first visit this close to the sun from the outer solar system's Oort Cloud, so the concerted campaign of observations may yield fresh clues to our solar system's earliest days more than 4 billion years ago.Following the comet flyby, operations teams have also confirmed the good health of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and of NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) orbiter.Mars Odyssey has worked at the Red Planet longer than any other Mars mission in history. NASA launched the spacecraft on April 7, 2001, and Odyssey arrived at Mars Oct. 24, 2001. Besides conducting its own scientific observations, the mission provides a communication relay for robots on the Martian surface.Odyssey is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems built the spacecraft. JPL and Lockheed Martin collaborate on operating the spacecraft. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.Arizona State University, Tempe, designed and operates THEMIS, which takes images in a range of visible light and infrared wavelengths. Odyssey's Neutron Spectrometer, provided by the U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico, and High Energy Neutron Detector, provided by the Russia's Space Research Institute, are parts of the mission's Gamma Ray Spectrometer suite, managed by the University of Arizona, Tucson.For more about the Mars Odyssey mission, visit:http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odysseyFor more about comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring, visit:http://mars.nasa.gov/comets/sidingspring

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-airs-monitors-tropical-storm-fay-as-it-deluges-the-east-coast

NASA's AIRS Monitors Tropical Storm Fay as It Deluges the East Coast

From its vantage point aboard the Aqua satellite, the instrument maps how much moisture the storm's clouds contain.

Tropical Storm Fay is sweeping across New England, with the center of the storm making landfall about 10 miles (15 kilometers) north-northeast of Atlantic City, New Jersey, at around 5 p.m. local time. At that time, Fay had maximum sustained winds of around 50 mph (85 kph). Forecasters predicted the storm will dump up to 7 inches (18 centimeters) of rain along its path from Delaware into New Jersey.NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) collected this image at around 2 p.m. local time on Friday, July 10. The purple regions indicate very cold clouds lofted high into the atmosphere by the storm and generally linked to heavy rainfall. Warmer clouds closer to the ground show up as green and blue, while the orange areas denote mostly cloud-free parts of the sky.Get the Latest JPL NewsSubscribe to the NewsletterAIRS, together with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), measures the infrared and microwave radiation emitted from Earth to study the planet's weather and climate. Both instruments observe Earth from NASA's Aqua satellite, which launched in 2002.AIRS and AMSU work in tandem to make simultaneous observations down to Earth's surface, even in the presence of heavy clouds. With more than 2,000 channels sensing different regions of the atmosphere, the system creates a global, three-dimensional map of atmospheric temperature and humidity, cloud amounts and heights, greenhouse gas concentrations, and many other atmospheric phenomena. The AIRS and AMSU instruments are managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California under contract with NASA. JPL is a division of Caltech.More information about AIRS can be found at:https://airs.jpl.nasa.gov/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/kepler-begins-18th-observing-campaign-with-a-focus-on-star-clusters

Kepler Begins 18th Observing Campaign with a Focus On Star Clusters

NASA's planet-hunting spacecraft Kepler has begun the 18th observing campaign of its extended mission, K2.

NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft began the 18thobserving campaign of its extended mission, K2, on May 12. For the next 82 days, Kepler will stare at clusters of stars, faraway galaxies, and a handful of solar system objects, including comets, objects beyond Neptune, and an asteroid. The Kepler spacecraft is expected to run out of fuel within several months.Campaign 18 is a familiar patch of space, as it's approximately the same region of sky that Kepler observed during Campaign 5 in 2015. One of the advantages of observing a field over again is that planets outside the solar system, called exoplanets, may be found orbiting farther from their stars. Astronomers hope to not only discover new exoplanets during this campaign, but also to confirm candidates that were previously identified.Open clusters are regions where stars formed at roughly the same age, including Messier 67 and Messier 44, otherwise known as Praesepe or the Beehive cluster. Home to six known exoplanets, the Praesepe cluster will be searched anew for objects that are transiting, or crossing, around these and other stars.At approximately 800 million years old, the stars in Praesepe are in their teenage years compared to our Sun. Many of these youthful stars are active and have large spots that can reveal information about a star's magnetic field, a fundamental component of a star that drives flaring and other activity that may have influence over habitability. By comparing brightness data collected in Campaign 18 and 5, scientists can learn more about how a star's spots cycle over time.At several billion years, the Messier 67 cluster is much older and has many Sun-like stars. It is one of the best-studied open clusters in the sky. Astronomers will continue their studies of stellar astrophysics by analyzing Messier 67's stars for changes in brightness. They will search for the signatures of exoplanets, observe the pulsations of evolved stars, and measure the rotation rates of many other stars in the cluster.Beyond these clusters, Kepler will observe blazars, the energetic nuclei of faraway galaxies with black holes in their centers. These objects propel jets of hot plasma toward Earth (though they are far too distant to affect us). The most notable of these targets is OJ 287, a system hosting two black holes in orbit around each other, one of which weighs 18 billion times the mass of the Sun!Even closer to home, Kepler will look at solar system objects, including comets, trans-Neptunian objects, and the near-Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis. This 1,000-foot chunk of rock will pass within 20,000 miles of Earth in the year 2029 -- close but still comfortably far enough to not pose any danger to Earthlings.NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley manages the Kepler and K2 missions for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation operates the flight system with support from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-rovers-mission-using-cloud-computing

Mars Rovers Mission Using Cloud Computing

The project team that built and operates the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity has become the first NASA space mission to use cloud computing for daily mission operations.

PASADENA, Calif. -- The project team that built and operates the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity has become the first NASA space mission to use cloud computing for daily mission operations.Cloud computing is a way to gain fast flexibility in computing ability by ordering capacity on demand -- as if from the clouds -- and paying only for what is used. NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project moved to this strategy last week for the software and data that the rovers' flight team uses to develop daily plans for rover activities. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., which manages the project, gained confidence in cloud computing from experience with other uses of the technology, including public participation sites about Mars exploration."This is a change to thinking about computer capacity and data storage as a commodity like electricity, or even the money in your bank account," said JPL's John Callas, rover project manager. "You don't keep all your money in your wallet. Instead you go to a nearby ATM and get cash when you need it. Your money is safe, and the bank can hold as much or as little of the money as you want. Data is the same way: You don't need to have it on you all the time. It can be safely stored elsewhere and you can get it anytime via an Internet connection."When we need more computing capacity, we don't need to install more servers if we can rent more capacity from the cloud for just the time we need it. This way we don't waste electricity and air conditioning with servers idling waiting to be used, and we don't have to worry about hardware maintenance and operating system obsolescence."Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004 for what were planned as three-month missions. Bonus, extended missions have continued for more than six years. Opportunity is currently active, requiring daily activity plans by a team of engineers at JPL, and scientists at many locations in North America and Europe. Spirit has been silent since March 2010 and is believed to be in a low-power hibernation mode for the Martian winter."The rover project is well suited for cloud computing," said Khawaja Shams, a JPL software engineer supporting the project. "It has a widespread user community acting collaboratively. Cloud enables us to deliver the data to each user from nearby locations for faster reaction time." Also, the unexpected longevity of the mission means the volume of data used has outgrown the systems originally planned for handling and sharing data, which makes the virtually limitless capacity of cloud computing attractive.JPL collaborated with the cloud team of Amazon.com Inc., Seattle, to plan and implement the use of cloud computing in the Mars Exploration Rover Project's daily operations. JPL developed the rover project's activity-planning software, called Maestro."We have worked closely with multiple cloud vendors since 2007 to learn the best ways to gain the advantages of cloud computing," said Tomas Soderstrom, chief technology officer for the JPL Office of the Chief Information Officer. "To implement JPL CIO Jim Rinaldi's vision of renting instead of buying capacity, we pragmatically look past the hype about cloud computing to find the practical, cost-efficient real mission applications. The Mars Exploration Rover project's use of clouds is one example of this results-oriented partnership. More will follow."In support of the federal Open Government Initiative, which increases public access to data collected by the federal government, JPL collaborated with the cloud team at Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash., to launch the "Be a Martian" website in November 2009. The site enables the public to participate as citizen scientists to improve Mars maps and take part in Mars research tasks. At this site --http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov-- more than 54,000 people have signed up to be "Martian citizens" and analyze data.For another early use of cloud computing, JPL worked with the cloud team at Google Inc., Mountain View, Calif. The Google cloud served a project in which JPL and computer science students at the University of California, San Diego, developed an educational application enabling fifth- and sixth-graders to tag labels onto images from Mars spacecraft.In addition to establishing a private cloud and working with Amazon, Google and Microsoft, JPL has also collaborated with other vendors of public cloud computing. Soderstrom said, "We defined a 'cloud-oriented architecture' to use clouds as an extension of our own resources and to run the computing and storage where it is most appropriate for each application."The extended missions of Spirit and Opportunity have provided a resource for testing innovations during an active space mission for possible use in future missions. New software uploads giving the rovers added autonomy have been one example, and cloud computing is another. JPL is currently building and testing NASA's next Mars rover, Curiosity, for launch in late 2011 in the Mars Science Laboratory mission. This rover will land on Mars in August 2012.Shams said, "The experience we gain using cloud computing for planning Opportunity's activities may be valuable when Curiosity reaches Mars, too."JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project and the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. For more information about these projects, seehttp://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.govandhttp://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassini-catches-titan-naked-in-the-solar-wind

Cassini Catches Titan Naked in the Solar Wind

Researchers studying data from NASA's Cassini mission have observed that Saturn's largest moon, Titan, behaves much like Venus, Mars or a comet when exposed to the raw power of the solar wind.

Researchers studying data from NASA's Cassini mission have observed that Saturn's largest moon, Titan, behaves much like Venus, Mars or a comet when exposed to the raw power of the solar wind. The observations suggest that unmagnetized bodies like Titan might interact with the solar wind in the same basic ways, regardless of their nature or distance from the sun.Titan is large enough that it could be considered a planet if it orbited the sun on its own, and a flyby of the giant moon in Dec. 2013 simulated that scenario, from Cassini's vantage point. The encounter was unique within Cassini's mission, as it was the only time the spacecraft has observed Titan in a pristine state, outside the region of space dominated by Saturn's magnetic field, called its magnetosphere."We observed that Titan interacts with the solar wind very much like Mars, if you moved it to the distance of Saturn," said Cesar Bertucci of the Institute of Astronomy and Space Physics in Buenos Aires, who led the research with colleagues from the Cassini mission. "We thought Titan in this state would look different. We certainly were surprised," he said.The solar wind is a fast-flowing gale of charged particles that continually streams outward from the sun, flowing around the planets like islands in a river. Studying the effects of the solar wind at other planets helps scientists understand how the sun's activity affects their atmospheres. These effects can include modification of an atmosphere's chemistry as well as its gradual loss to space.Titan spends about 95 percent of the time within Saturn's magnetosphere. But during a Cassini flyby on Dec. 1, 2013, the giant moon happened to be on the sunward side of Saturn when a powerful outburst of solar activity reached the planet. The strong surge in the solar wind so compressed the sun-facing side of Saturn's magnetosphere that the bubble's outer edge was pushed inside the orbit of Titan. This left the moon exposed to, and unprotected from, the raging stream of energetic solar particles.Using its magnetometer instrument, which is akin to an equisitely sensitive compass, Cassini has observed Titan many times during the mission's decade in the Saturn system, but always within Saturn's magnetosphere. The spacecraft has not been able to detect a magnetic field coming from Titan itself. In its usual state, Titan is cloaked in Saturn's magnetic field.This time the influence of Saturn was not present, allowing Cassini's magnetometer to observe Titan as it interacted directly with the solar wind. The special circumstance allowed Bertucci and colleagues to study the shockwave that formed around Titan where the full-force solar wind rammed into the moon's atmosphere.At Earth, our planet's powerful magnetic field acts as a shield against the solar wind, helping to protect our atmosphere from being stripped away. In the case of Venus, Mars and comets -- none of which is protected by a global magnetic field -- the solar wind drapes around the objects themselves, interacting directly with their atmospheres (or in the comet's case, its coma). Cassini saw the same thing at Titan.Researchers thought they would have to treat Titan's response to the solar wind with a unique approach because the chemistry of the hazy moon's dense atmosphere is highly complex. But Cassini's observations of a naked Titan hinted at a more elegant solution. "This could mean we can use the same tools to study how vastly different worlds, in different parts of the solar system, interact with the wind from the sun," Bertucci said.Bertucci noted that the list of similarly unmagnetized bodies might include the dwarf planet Pluto, to be visited this year for the first time by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft."After nearly a decade in orbit, the Cassini mission has revealed once again that the Saturn system is full of surprises," said Michele Dougherty, principal investigator of the Cassini magnetometer at Imperial College, London. "After more than a hundred flybys, we have finally encountered Titan out in the solar wind, which will allow us to better understand how such moons maintain or lose their atmospheres."The new research is published today in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter. The magnetometer team is based at Imperial College, London, U.K.More information about Cassini:http://www.nasa.gov/cassiniandhttp://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-bound-nasa-rover-carries-coin-for-camera-checkup

Mars-Bound NASA Rover Carries Coin for Camera Checkup

At least one object in photos NASA's Curiosity rover will transmit from Mars later this year will look familiar to all Americans: a Lincoln penny sent as a camera reference.

The camera at the end of the robotic arm on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has its own calibration target, a smartphone-size plaque that looks like an eye chart supplemented with color chips and an attached penny.When Curiosity lands on Mars in August, researchers will use this calibration target to test performance of the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI. MAHLI's close-up inspections of Martian rocks and soil will show details so tiny, the calibration target includes reference lines finer than a human hair. This camera is not limited to close-ups, though. It can focus on any target from about a finger's-width away to the horizon.Curiosity, the rover of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, also carries four other science cameras and a dozen black-and-white engineering cameras, plus other research instruments. The spacecraft, launched Nov. 26, 2011, will deliver Curiosity to a landing site inside Mars' Gale Crater in August to begin a two-year investigation of whether that area has ever offered an environment favorable for microbial life.The "hand lens" in MAHLI's name refers to field geologists' practice of carrying a hand lens for close inspection of rocks they find. When shooting photos in the field, geologists use various calibration methods."When a geologist takes pictures of rock outcrops she is studying, she wants an object of known scale in the photographs," said MAHLI Principal Investigator Ken Edgett, of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. "If it is a whole cliff face, she'll ask a person to stand in the shot. If it is a view from a meter or so away, she might use a rock hammer. If it is a close-up, as the MAHLI can take, she might pull something small out of her pocket. Like a penny."Edgett bought the special penny that's aboard Curiosity with funds from his own pocket. It is a 1909 "VDB" cent, from the first year Lincoln pennies were minted, the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth, with the VDB initials of the coin's designer - Victor David Brenner -- on the reverse."The penny is on the MAHLI calibration target as a tip of the hat to geologists' informal practice of placing a coin or other object of known scale in their photographs. A more formal practice is to use an object with scale marked in millimeters, centimeters or meters," Edgett said. "Of course, this penny can't be moved around and placed in MAHLI images; it stays affixed to the rover."The middle of the target offers a marked scale of black bars in a range of labeled sizes. While the scale will not appear in photos MAHLI takes of Martian rocks, knowing the distance from the camera to a rock target will allow scientists to correlate calibration images to each investigation image.Another part of MAHLI's calibration target displays six patches of pigmented silicone as aids for interpreting color and brightness in images. Five of them -- red, green, blue, 40-percent gray and 60-percent gray -- are spares from targets on NASA Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. The sixth, with a fluorescent pigment that glows red when exposed to ultraviolet light, allows checking of an ultraviolet light source on MAHLI. The fluorescent material was donated to the MAHLI team by Spectra Systems, Inc., Providence, R.I.A stair-stepped area at the bottom of the target, plus the penny, help with three-dimensional calibration using known surface shapes.Curiosity also carries calibration materials for other science instruments on the rover. "The importance of calibration is to allow data acquired on Mars to be compared reliably to data acquired on Earth," said Mars Science Laboratory Project Scientist John Grotzinger, of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.The MAHLI calibration target, with its penny and a miniscule cartoon of a character named "Joe the Martian," serves an additional function: public engagement."Everyone in the United States can recognize the penny and immediately know how big it is, and can compare that with the rover hardware and Mars materials in the same image," Edgett said. "The public can watch for changes in the penny over the long term on Mars. Will it change color? Will it corrode? Will it get pitted by windblown sand?"The Joe the Martian character appeared regularly in a children's science periodical, "Red Planet Connection," when Edgett directed the Mars outreach program at Arizona State University, Tempe, in the 1990s. Joe was created earlier, as part of Edgett's schoolwork when he was 9 years old and NASA's Mars Viking missions, launched in 1975, were inspiring him to dream of becoming a Mars researcher.Edgett said, "The Joe the Martian on Curiosity really is a 'thank you' from the MAHLI team to the folks who have provided us with the opportunity to study Mars, the U.S. taxpayers. He is also there to encourage children around the world to set goals that will help them achieve their dreams in whatever interests they pursue."The Mars Science Laboratory is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the Caltech. For more information, visithttp://www.nasa.gov/msl.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/space-sunflower-may-help-snap-pictures-of-planets

Space Sunflower May Help Snap Pictures of Planets

A spacecraft that looks like a giant sunflower might one day be used to acquire images of Earth-like rocky planets around nearby stars.

A spacecraft that looks like a giant sunflower might one day be used to acquire images of Earth-like rocky planets around nearby stars. The prototype deployable structure, called a starshade, is being developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.The hunt is on for planets that resemble Earth in size, composition and temperature. Rocky planets with just the right temperature for liquid water -- not too hot, not too cold -- could be possible abodes for life outside our solar system. NASA's Kepler mission has discovered hundreds of planets orbiting other stars, called exoplanets, some of which are a bit larger than Earth and lie in this comfortable "Goldilocks" zone.Researchers generally think it's only a matter of time before we find perfect twins of Earth. The next step would be to image and characterize their spectra, or chemical signatures, which provide clear clues about whether those worlds could support life. The starshade is designed to help take those pictures of planets by blocking out the overwhelmingly bright light of their stars. Simply put, the starshade is analogous to holding your hand up to the sun to block it while taking a picture of somebody.The proposed starshade could launch together with a telescope. Once in space, it would separate from the rocket and telescope, unfurl its petals, then move into position to block the light of stars.The project is led by Jeremy Kasdin, a professor at Princeton University, N.J., in conjunction with JPL and support from Northrop Grumman of Redondo Beach, Calif.Kasdin gave a TED talk about the project on March 19. More information is at:http://bit.ly/1nHgLhURead more about the Starshade at:http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/video/15JPL manages NASA's Exoplanet Exploration program office.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/ice-probe-reveals-first-ever-images-deep-within-antarctic-streams

Ice Probe Reveals First-Ever Images Deep Within Antarctic Streams

Scientists have had their first inside look at ice layers, frozen debris and a surprising channel of water deep beneath an Antarctic ice stream, thanks to an ice probe designed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Scientists have had their first inside look at ice layers, frozen debris and a surprising channel of water deep beneath an Antarctic ice stream, thanks to an ice probe designed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.Plunged more than 1,200 meters (more than 3,900 feet) down four boreholes drilled in the West Antarctic ice sheet, JPL's probe paves the way for the development of technology capable of withstanding extreme environments on Earth and other planets.The Antarctic Ice Borehole Probe Project, a collaborative effort of scientists at JPL and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, looked into the dynamics of the West Antarctic ice sheet, as part of the U.S.Antarctic Program of the National Science Foundation. The Antarctic ice sheet, equal in size to the United States and Mexico combined, holds a potential treasure trove of information related to the geological history of this frozen continent and the mechanisms by which ice flows from this area to the oceans. Studies show that significant changes in glacier melting and flow rates could have a considerable impact on global sea levels."This project fits into the bigger picture of planetary studies," said Dr. Frank Carsey, JPL's principal investigator on the project. "It provides us with some understanding of how to observe what goes on deep in ice caps -- Earth's ice caps, Martian ice caps and ice caps on Europa." Europa is an ice-covered moon of Jupiter.The glaciological investigation took place at Ice Stream C, an area in the West Antarctic ice sheet where 150 years ago the ice suddenly stopped flowing in one area in the lower part of the stream. This so-called "sticky spot," currently flowing at a rate of 2 meters per year (about 6 feet), greatly differs from its neighboring streams, flowing at approximately 400 meters (1,300 feet) per year.Equipped with two cameras and lights, JPL's ice probe revealed what appears to be a basal water system, or series of water channels at the base of the ice stream. In places, this water-filled cavity measured approximately 1.4 meters deep (4.6 feet). Based on previous calculations, researchers expected the depth of a water basal cavity to be only in the millimeter range.To the researchers' surprise, they also found rock and other debris embedded in the ice much higher than expected. It was believed that frozen debris would be found no higher than two meters (almost seven feet) off the base of the ice stream. In contrast, the visual data shows frozen debris some 26 meters (85 feet) off the base, which has yet to be explained.A layering effect in the ice was also uncovered by the probe. Though not yet fully understood, it is thought that, upstream, ice and gravel have frozen onto the base of the ice sheet. With the ice streams constantly moving, water may slide under debris-laden layers, lifting them up, allowing the process to repeat."The layered information will turn out to be very interesting," said Carsey. "These layers tell us about processes upstream." By analyzing these ice layers, researchers may learn how ice streams flow and stop flowing.The team's findings open up the doors to further glaciological research. "With the probe, we have now left the dark ages," said Caltech's Dr. Hermann Engelhardt, a senior research associate on the project. Dr. Barclay Kamb of Caltech is the project's principal investigator.JPL hopes to advance the probe's technology in the next year or two, adding biological sensors to search for evidence of life in the Antarctic ice sheet and eventually on other planets. Microbes are known to reside under mountain glaciers, where it is warmer and there are nutrients from impurities found between water crystals."These locations are very old places. Some, such as on Mars, are hundreds of millions of years old," said Carsey. The base of a planet's polar cap chronicles the planet's climate and can reveal much about its history and biology, he said.The Antarctic Ice Borehole Probe Project is a collaborative effort of JPL and Caltech, supported by NASA, Washington D.C., and the National Science Foundation, Arlington, Va. The ice probe was developed by JPL, a division of Caltech.NOTE TO BROADCASTERS: A video file of still images to accompany this release is scheduled to air on NASA Television today at 3, 6 and 9 p.m. EST. NASA Television is available at GE-2, Transponder 9C at 85 degrees West longitude, with vertical polarization. Frequency is on 3880.0 megahertz with audio on 6.8 megahertz.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/martian-soil

Martian Soil

While Martian soil contains no organic matter, conditions beneath the surface may once have been more favorable to the existence of life on the Red Planet, said three NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists.

While Martian soil contains no organic matter, conditions beneath the surface may once have been more favorable to the existence of life on the Red Planet, said three NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists.Seeds planted in lunar soil readily germinate when given water and nutrients, but Martian soil shows no signs of biological activity when similarly treated.The entire Martian surface is apparently sterile at present due to process called photocatalytic oxidation, the destruction of any organic molecules by free oxygen radicals.Dr. Kevin Pang, in paper prepared for presentation before Dec. 6 session of the 1989 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union at San Francisco, said organic compounds were recently discovered deep in the interior of meteorite believed to have come from Mars.Pang's co-authors are Dr. Fun-Dow Tsay and Brian O. Franklin.That meteorite, known as EETA 79001, contained carbonaceous material, and that indicates, the scientists said, that the subsoil of Mars may be more benign to life forms than its surface.In times past, about three times as many meteorites hit Mars as hit the moon.Assuming the same fraction of carbonaceous chondritic meteorites striking both bodies, Martian soil should have been organically richer than lunar soil at one time.The fertility of Martian soil would have been further enhanced by moons that, over time, fell to the surface of Mars, Pang said. The science team based its conclusions on evidence that Mars' two satellites, Phobos and Deimos, have compositions similar to carbonaceous chondrites, rich in organic compounds, and that in past times Mars was surrounded by swarm of similar satellites which eventually crashed into the planet."Since more than 99 percent of the ancient satellite mass impacted prior to the last episode of Martian volcanism (about 1.1 billion years ago)," they said, "it appears that there was time when an organically rich soil, thick atmosphere and running water coexisted on Mars."The fastest way to get life started under such favorable conditions is by panspermia, Pang said.Panspermia is theory that life exists throughout the universe and develops where an environment permits. "If life had originated on Mars by panspermia the most likely source of spores is the Earth," the scientists said."The presence of moon and Mars rocks on Earth forces us to conclude that there must be Earth rocks on Mars," they said, and such rocks could have carried primitive life to the Red Planet.Impact and trajectory analyses by Dr. Jay Melosh of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas, are consistent with this conclusion, they said. If there are fossils of life onMars, they may be like those on Earth, they said.Their paper, entitled, "Paleoatmosphere, Lost Satellites, Panspermia and the Possible Development of Life on Early Mars," resulted from NASA-funded study at JPL in Pasadena, Calif.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/dawn-mission-honored-with-collier-trophy

Dawn Mission Honored With Collier Trophy

NASA's Dawn mission, the first spacecraft to orbit two extraterrestrial targets, has been honored with the National Aeronautic Association's 2016 Robert J. Collier Trophy.

NASA's Dawn mission, representing the first spacecraft to orbit two extraterrestrial targets, was honored with the National Aeronautic Association Robert J. Collier Trophy at a presentation in Arlington, Virginia, on Thursday, June 9, 2016.The award, presented annually, was given to Dawn "In recognition of the extraordinary achievements of orbiting and exploring protoplanet Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres, and advancing the nation's technological capabilities in pioneering new frontiers in space travel."The 8-foot-tall (2.4-meter-tall) trophy resides at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington and is engraved with the names of recipients. Dawn competed with a field of nine finalists to win this year's award. Dawn's mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Previous Collier Trophy recipients involving JPL missions include the teams from NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (2012) and Voyager (1980)."All of us at NASA are very proud of our Dawn team. For the past eight years, Dawn has taught us much about Vesta and Ceres, and in a broader sense, about ourselves," said NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman. "This mission isn't only for scientists. It's for all of us who want to discover the nature of uncharted worlds and share that discovery with all who gaze up at the night sky in wonderment."Dawn is a project of NASA's Science Mission Directorate Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Italian Space Agency and Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team. For a complete list of mission participants, visit:http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/missionMore information about Dawn is available at the following sites:http://dawn.jpl.nasa.govhttp://www.nasa.gov/dawnJPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-image-takes-earth-photo-event-to-a-new-world

Mars Image Takes Earth Photo Event to a New World

When some Mars explorers learned of plans for a worldwide photography event combining shots taken from thousands of different locations on May 2, 2010, they figured, "Why just one world?"

When some Mars explorers learned of plans for a worldwide photography event combining shots taken from thousands of different locations on May 2, 2010, they figured, "Why just one world?"A New York Times photography blog, Lens, proposed the event and has received more than 12,000 images from around the world. Plus one from a rover on Mars.The inspiration came from a suggestion by Emily Lakdawalla, science and technology coordinator for The Planetary Society in Pasadena, Calif.Astronomer Jim Bell of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., lead scientist for the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, suggested that the rover team include commands for Opportunity to take multiple exposures late in the Martian afternoon on May 2. The resulting scene extends from the rover's own deck to ochre sky above the horizon more than 3 kilometers (2 miles) away. Dramatically shaded ripples of windblown sand reach toward the distant horizon.The Opportunity image is highlighted at the Lens blog at:http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/readers-19/. The entire gallery of "Moment in Time" images, the vast majority from Planet Earth, is online at:http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/03/blogs/a-moment-in-time.html#/4bdd9784db799a656b0002e9.The Lens blog proposed that photos be shot at 1500 Universal Time (UT, or Greenwich Mean Time) on May 2 from locations around the world. For logistical reasons, the rover instead took the pictures just before 1500 "local true solar time" on Mars, which was about 1115 UT on May 2 on Earth. Shortly afterwards, the rover transmitted the image data to NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, which relayed them to Earth."It wasn't until about 1500 Universal Time on Earth that we could actually see the images and combine them into a mosaic," Bell said. "So we shot the mosaic on Mars at around 1500 local Mars time and received and processed the image on Earth around 1500 Universal Time. In those respects, we hope that our entry is consistent with the spirit of the rules, making this a truly interplanetary event."The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassini-finds-saturn-moons-are-active

Cassini Finds Saturn Moons are Active

Saturn's moons Tethys and Dione are flinging great streams of particles into space, according to data from the Cassini mission to Saturn.

Saturn's moons Tethys and Dione are flinging great streams of particles into space, according to data from the Cassini mission to Saturn. The discovery suggests the possibility of some sort of geological activity, perhaps even volcanic, on these icy worlds.These results appear in this week's issue of the journal Nature. The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.The particles were traced to the two moons because of the dramatic outward movement of electrically charged gas, which could be mapped back to the moons' orbits in the magnetic environment of Saturn. Known as plasma, the gas is composed of negatively charged electrons and positively charged ions, which are atoms with one or more electrons missing. Because they're charged, the electrons and ions can become trapped inside a magnetic field.Saturn rotates in just 10 hours and 46 minutes. This sweeps the magnetic field and the trapped plasma through space. Just like a child on a fast-spinning merry-go-round, the trapped gas feels a force trying to throw it outwards, away from the center of rotation.Soon after the Cassini spacecraft reached Saturn in June 2004, its instruments revealed that the planet's hurried rotation squashes the plasma into a disc, and that great fingers of gas are being thrown out into space from the disc's outer edges. Hotter, more tenuous plasma then rushes in to fill the gaps.Now, Jim Burch, team member of the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer at the Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, and his colleagues have made a careful study of these events using the instrument. They have found that the direction of the ejected electrons points back towards Tethys and Dione. "It establishes Tethys and Dione as important sources of plasma in Saturn's magnetosphere," said Burch.Until this discovery, the only moons of Saturn known to be active worlds were Titan and Enceladus. "This new result seems to be a strong indication that there is activity on Tethys and Dione as well," said Andrew Coates from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, co-author and member of the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer team.Activity is a draw for planetary scientists, as it means that the planet has yet to become geologically dead or is perhaps being supplied with energy. The activity on Enceladus was detected first by Cassini's Dual Technique Magnetometer. This led the flight team to schedule a particularly close pass of Enceladus, which revealed a wealth of data about Enceladus' alien geysers - and spectacular pictures, too."The best results arise when we combine a variety of data sets to understand the observations," said Michele Dougherty, Imperial College, London, who is principal investigator of the magnetometer.Future flybys of Dione and Tethys will allow the magnetometer team and the other instrument teams a close-up look at the moons. Before that happens, the teams have to go back and search for further signs of activity in the data already collected during the Tethys and Dione flybys of 2005.In addition, having detected the electrons, they will try to determine the composition of the Tethys and Dione plasma using ion data.More information on the Cassini mission is available at:http://www.nasa.gov/cassini,http://saturn.jpl.nasa.govandhttp://saturn.esa.int.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Cassini Plasma Spectrometer team is based at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. The magnetometer team is based at Imperial College in London, working with team members from the United States and several European countries.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/dawn-sets-course-for-higher-orbit

Dawn Sets Course for Higher Orbit

After studying Ceres for more than eight months from its low-altitude science orbit, NASA's Dawn spacecraft will move higher up for different views of the dwarf planet.

After studying Ceres for more than eight months from its low-altitude science orbit, NASA's Dawn spacecraft will move higher up for different views of the dwarf planet.Dawn has delivered a wealth of images and other data from its current perch at 240 miles (385 kilometers) above Ceres' surface, which is closer to the dwarf planet than the International Space Station is to Earth. Now, the mission team is pivoting to consider science questions that can be examined from higher up.After Dawn completed its prime mission on June 30, having surpassed all of its scientific objectives at Vesta and at Ceres, NASA extended the mission to perform new studies of Ceres. One of the factors limiting Dawn's lifetime is the amount of hydrazine, the propellant needed to orient the spacecraft to observe Ceres and communicate with Earth. By going to a higher orbit at Ceres, Dawn will use the remaining hydrazine more sparingly, because it won't have to work as hard to counter Ceres' gravitational pull."Most spacecraft wouldn't be able to change their orbital altitude so easily. But thanks to Dawn's uniquely capable ion propulsion system, we can maneuver the ship to get the greatest scientific return from the mission," said Marc Rayman, chief engineer and mission director, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.On Sept. 2, Dawn will begin spiraling upward to about 910 miles (1,460 kilometers) from Ceres. The altitude will be close to where Dawn was a year ago, but the orientation of the spacecraft's orbit -- specifically, the angle between the orbit plane and the sun -- will be different this time, so the spacecraft will have a different view of the surface.The mission team is continuing to develop the extended mission itinerary and will submit a full plan to NASA next month.Dawn's mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Italian Space Agency and Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team. For a complete list of mission participants, visit:http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/missionMore information about Dawn is available at the following sites:http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/radar-images-of-asteroid-2005-wk4

Radar Images of Asteroid 2005 WK4

A collage of radar images of near-Earth asteroid 2005 WK4 was generated by NASA scientists using the 230-foot (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., on Aug. 8, 2013.

PASADENA, Calif. -- A collage of radar images of near-Earth asteroid 2005 WK4 was generated by NASA scientists using the 230-foot (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., on Aug. 8, 2013.The asteroid is between 660 and 980 feet (200 and 300 meters) in diameter; it has a rounded and slightly asymmetric shape. As it rotates, a number of features are evident that suggest the presence of some flat regions and a bulge near the equator.The data were obtained between 12:40 and 7:10 a.m. PDT (3:40 and 10:10 a.m. EDT). At the time of the observations, the asteroid's distance was about 1.93 million miles (3.1 million kilometers) from Earth, which is 8.2 lunar distances away. The data were obtained over an interval of 6.5 hours as the asteroid completed about 2.4 rotations. The resolution is 12 feet (3.75 meters) per pixel.Radar is a powerful technique for studying an asteroid's size, shape, rotation state, surface features and surface roughness, and for improving the calculation of asteroid orbits. Radar measurements of asteroid distances and velocities often enable computation of asteroid orbits much further into the future than if radar observations weren't available.NASA places a high priority on tracking asteroids and protecting our home planet from them. In fact, the United States has the most robust and productive survey and detection program for discovering near-Earth objects. To date, U.S. assets have discovered more than 98 percent of the known near-Earth Objects.In addition to the resources NASA puts into understanding asteroids, it also partners with other U.S. government agencies, university-based astronomers, and space science institutes across the country that are working to track and understand these objects better, often with grants, interagency transfers and other contracts from NASA.In 2016, NASA will launch a robotic probe to one of the most potentially hazardous of the known near-Earth objects. The OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid (101955) Bennu will be a pathfinder for future spacecraft designed to perform reconnaissance on any newly discovered threatening objects. Aside from monitoring potential threats, the study of asteroids and comets enables a valuable opportunity to learn more about the origins of our solar system, the source of water on Earth, and even the origin of organic molecules that led to the development of life.NASA recently announced development of a first-ever mission to identify, capture and relocate an asteroid for human exploration. Using game-changing technologies, this mission would mark an unprecedented technological achievement that raises the bar of what humans can do in space.NASA's Near-Earth Object Program at NASA Headquarters, Washington, manages and funds the search, study and monitoring of asteroids and comets whose orbits periodically bring them close to Earth. JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is available at:http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/,http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatchand via Twitter athttp://www.twitter.com/asteroidwatch.More information about asteroid radar research is at:http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/.More information about the Deep Space Network is at:http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-next-generation-asteroid-impact-monitoring-system-goes-online

NASA’s Next-Generation Asteroid Impact Monitoring System Goes Online

The new system improves the capabilities of NASA JPL’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies to assess the impact risk of asteroids that can come close to our planet.

To date, nearly 28,000 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs)have been foundby survey telescopes that continually scan the night sky, adding new discoveries at a rate of about 3,000 per year. But as larger and more advanced survey telescopes turbocharge the search over the next few years, a rapid uptick in discoveries is expected. In anticipation of this increase, NASA astronomers have developed a next-generation impact monitoring algorithm called Sentry-II to better evaluate NEA impact probabilities.Popular culture often depicts asteroids as chaotic objects that zoom haphazardly around our solar system, changing course unpredictably and threatening our planet without a moment’s notice. This is not the reality. Asteroids are extremely predictable celestial bodies that obey the laws of physics and follow knowable orbital paths around the Sun.But sometimes, those paths can come very close to Earth’s future position and, because of small uncertainties in the asteroids’ positions, a future Earth impact cannot be completely ruled out. So, astronomers use sophisticated impact monitoring software to automatically calculate the impact risk.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERManaged by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) calculates every known NEA orbit to improve impact hazard assessments in support of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO). CNEOS has monitored the impact risk posed by NEAs with software called Sentry, developed by JPL in 2002.“The first version of Sentry was a very capable system that was in operation for almost 20 years,” said Javier Roa Vicens, who led the development of Sentry-II while working at JPL as a navigation engineer and recently moved to SpaceX. “It was based on some very smart mathematics: In under an hour, you could reliably get the impact probability for a newly discovered asteroid over the next 100 years – an incredible feat.”But with Sentry-II, NASA has a tool that can rapidly calculate impact probabilities for all known NEAs, including some special cases not captured by the original Sentry. Sentry-II reports the objects of most risk in the CNEOSSentry Table.By systematically calculating impact probabilities in this new way, the researchers have made the impact monitoring system more robust, enabling NASA to confidently assess all potential impacts with odds as low as a few chances in 10 million.Special CasesAs an asteroid travels through the solar system, the Sun’s gravitational pull dictates the path of its orbit, and the gravity of the planets will also tug at its trajectory in predictable ways. Sentry modeled to a high precision how these gravitational forces shaped an asteroid’s orbit, helping to predict where it will be far into the future. But it couldn’t account for non-gravitational forces, the most significant being the thermal forces caused by the Sun’s heat.As an asteroid spins, sunlight heats the object’s dayside. The heated surface will then rotate to the asteroid’s shaded nightside and cool down. Infrared energy is released as it cools, generating a tiny yet continual thrust on the asteroid. This phenomenon is known as the Yarkovsky effect, which has little influence on the asteroid’s motion over short periods but can significantly change its path over decades and centuries.This video explains how asteroid Bennu’s orbit around the Sun was determined by considering gravitational and non-gravitational forces, helping scientists understand how the asteroid’s trajectory will change over time.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center“The fact that Sentry couldn’t automatically handle the Yarkovsky effect was a limitation,” said Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at JPL who also helped develop Sentry-II. “Every time we came across a special case – like asteroidsApophis,Bennu, or1950 DA– we had to do complex and time-consuming manual analyses. With Sentry-II, we don’t have to do that anymore.”Another issue with the original Sentry algorithm was that it sometimes couldn’t accurately predict the impact probability of asteroids that undergo extremely close encounters with Earth. The motion of these NEAs gets significantly deflected by our planet’s gravity, and the post-encounter orbital uncertainties can grow dramatically. In those cases, the old Sentry’s calculations could fail, requiring manual intervention. Sentry-II doesn’t have that limitation.“In terms of numbers, the special cases we’d find were a very tiny fraction of all the NEAs that we’d calculate impact probabilities for,” said Roa Vicens. “But we are going to discover many more of these special cases whenNASA’s planned NEO Surveyormission and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile go online, so we need to be prepared.”Many Needles, One HaystackThis is how impact probabilities are calculated: When telescopes track a new NEA, astronomers measure the asteroid’s observed positions in the sky and report them to theMinor Planet Center. CNEOS then uses that data to determine the asteroid’s most likely orbit around the Sun. But because there are slight uncertainties in the asteroid’s observed position, its “most likely orbit” might not represent its true orbit. The true orbit is somewhere inside an uncertainty region, like a cloud of possibilities surrounding the most likely orbit.To assess whether an impact is possible and narrow down where the true orbit may be, the original Sentry would make some assumptions as to how the uncertainty region may evolve. It would then select a set of evenly spaced points along a line spanning the uncertainty region. Each point represented a slightly different possible current location of the asteroid.Sentry would then wind the clock forward, watch those “virtual asteroids” orbit the Sun, and see if any came near Earth in the future. If so, further calculations would be required to “zoom in” to see whether any intermediate points might impact Earth, and if they did, estimate the impact probability.This animation shows an example of how the uncertainties in a near-Earth asteroid’s orbit can evolve with time. After such an asteroid’s close encounter with Earth, the uncertainty region becomes larger, making the possibility of future impacts more challenging to assess.Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechSentry-II has a different philosophy. The new algorithm models thousands of random points not limited by any assumptions about how the uncertainty region may evolve; instead, it selects random points throughout the entire uncertainty region. Sentry-II’s algorithm then asks: What are the possible orbits within theentireregion of uncertainty that could hit Earth?This way, the orbital determination calculations aren’t shaped by predetermined assumptions about which portions of the uncertainty region might lead to a possible impact. This allows Sentry-II to zero in on more very low probability impact scenarios, some of which Sentry may have missed.Farnocchia likens the process to searching for needles in a haystack: The needles are possible impact scenarios, and the haystack is the uncertainty region. The more the uncertainty in an asteroid’s position, the bigger the haystack. Sentry would randomly poke at the haystack thousands of times looking for needles located near a single line stretching through the haystack. The assumption was that following this line was the best way of searching for needles. But Sentry-II assumes no line and instead throws thousands of tiny magnets randomly all over that haystack, which quickly get attracted to, and then find, the nearby needles.“Sentry-II is a fantastic advancement in finding tiny impact probabilities for a huge range of scenarios,” said Steve Chesley, senior research scientist at JPL, who led the development of Sentry and collaborated on Sentry-II. “When the consequences of a future asteroid impact are so big, it pays to find even the smallest impact risk hiding in the data.”A study describing Sentry-II waspublishedin the Astronomical Journal on Dec. 1, 2021.More information about CNEOS, asteroids, and near-Earth objects can be found at:https://cneos.jpl.nasa.govFor more information about PDCO, visit:https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefenseFor asteroid and comet news and updates, follow@AsteroidWatchon Twitter.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/saturn-spacecraft-samples-interstellar-dust

Saturn Spacecraft Samples Interstellar Dust

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has detected the faint but distinct signature of dust coming from beyond our solar system.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has detected the faint but distinct signature of dust coming from beyond our solar system. The research, led by a team of Cassini scientists primarily from Europe, is published this week in the journal Science.Cassini has been in orbit around Saturn since 2004, studying the giant planet, its rings and its moons. The spacecraft has also sampled millions of ice-rich dust grains with its cosmic dust analyzer instrument. The vast majority of the sampled grains originate from active jets that spray from the surface of Saturn's geologically active moon Enceladus.But among the myriad microscopic grains collected by Cassini, a special few -- just 36 grains -- stand out from the crowd. Scientists conclude these specks of material came from interstellar space -- the space between the stars.Alien dust in the solar system is not unanticipated. In the 1990s, the ESA/NASA Ulysses mission made the first in-situ observations of this material, which were later confirmed by NASA's Galileo spacecraft. The dust was traced back to the local interstellar cloud: a nearly empty bubble of gas and dust that our solar system is traveling through with a distinct direction and speed."From that discovery, we always hoped we would be able to detect these interstellar interlopers at Saturn with Cassini. We knew that if we looked in the right direction, we should find them," said Nicolas Altobelli, Cassini project scientist at ESA (European Space Agency) and lead author of the study. "Indeed, on average, we have captured a few of these dust grains per year, travelling at high speed and on a specific path quite different from that of the usual icy grains we collect around Saturn."The tiny dust grains were speeding through the Saturn system at over 45,000 mph (72,000 kilometers per hour), fast enough to avoid being trapped inside the solar system by the gravity of the sun and its planets."We're thrilled Cassini could make this detection, given that our instrument was designed primarily to measure dust from within the Saturn system, as well as all the other demands on the spacecraft," said Marcia Burton, a Cassini fields and particles scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and a co-author of the paper.Importantly, unlike Ulysses and Galileo, Cassini was able to analyze the composition of the dust for the first time, showing it to be made of a very specific mixture of minerals, not ice. The grains all had a surprisingly similar chemical make-up, containing major rock-forming elements like magnesium, silicon, iron and calcium in average cosmic proportions. Conversely, more reactive elements like sulfur and carbon were found to be less abundant compared to their average cosmic abundance."Cosmic dust is produced when stars die, but with the vast range of types of stars in the universe, we naturally expected to encounter a huge range of dust types over the long period of our study," said Frank Postberg of the University of Heidelberg, a co-author of the paper and co-investigator of Cassini's dust analyzer.Stardust grains are found in some types of meteorites, which have preserved them since the birth of our solar system. They are generally old, pristine and diverse in their composition. But surprisingly, the grains detected by Cassini aren't like that. They have apparently been made rather uniform through some repetitive processing in the interstellar medium, the researchers said.The authors speculate on how this processing of dust might take place: Dust in a star-forming region could be destroyed and recondense multiple times as shock waves from dying stars passed through, resulting in grains like the ones Cassini observed streaming into our solar system."The long duration of the Cassini mission has enabled us to use it like a micrometeorite observatory, providing us privileged access to the contribution of dust from outside our solar system that could not have been obtained in any other way," said Altobelli.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cosmic Dust Analyzer is supported by the German Aerospace Center (DLR); the instrument is managed by the University of Stuttgart, Germany.For more information about Cassini, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/cassinihttp://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/scientists-planning-now-for-asteroid-flyby-a-decade-away

Scientists Planning Now for Asteroid Flyby a Decade Away

On April 13, 2029, asteroid Apophis will cruise harmlessly by Earth at distance of about 19,000 miles (31,000 kilometers). Scientists are already planning observations and science opportunities for the event.

On April 13, 2029, a speck of light will streak across the sky, getting brighter and faster. At one point it will travel more than the width of the full Moon within a minute and it will get as bright as the stars in the Little Dipper. But it won't be a satellite or an airplane - it will be a 1,100-foot-wide (340-meter-wide) near-Earth asteroid called 99942 Apophis that will cruise harmlessly by Earth, about 19,000 miles (31,000 kilometers) above the surface. That's within the distance that some of our spacecraft that orbit Earth.The international asteroid research community couldn't be more excited.This week at the2019 Planetary Defense Conferencein College Park, Maryland, scientists are gathering to discuss observation plans and science opportunities for the celestial event still a decade away. During a session on April 30, scientists will discuss everything from how to observe the event to hypothetical missions we could send out to the asteroid."The Apophis close approach in 2029 will be an incredible opportunity for science," said Marina Brozovi&cacute, a radar scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who works on radar observations of near-Earth objects (NEOs). "We'll observe the asteroid with both optical and radar telescopes. With radar observations, we might be able to see surface details that are only a few meters in size."It's rare for an asteroid of this size to pass by Earth so close. Although scientists have spotted small asteroids, on the order of 5-10 meters, flying by Earth at a similar distance, asteroids the size of Apophis are far fewer in number and so do not pass this close to Earth as often.The asteroid, looking like a moving star-like point of light, will first become visible to the naked eye in the night sky over the Southern Hemisphere, flying above Earth from the east coast to the west coast of Australia. It will be mid-morning on the East Coast of the United States when Apophis is above Australia. It will then cross the Indian Ocean, and by the afternoon in the eastern U.S. it will have crossed the equator, still moving west, above Africa. At closest approach, just before 6 p.m. EDT, Apophis will be over the Atlantic Ocean - and it will move so fast that it will cross the Atlantic in just an hour. By 7 p.m. EDT, the asteroid will have crossed over the United States.A team of astronomers at the Kitt Peak National Observatory discovered Apophis in June2004. The astronomers were only able to detect the asteroid for two days before technical and weather issues prevented further observations. Luckily, another team rediscovered the asteroid at the Siding Spring Survey in Australia later that year. The observations caused quite a stir - initial orbital calculations revealed that the asteroid had a 2.7% chance of impacting Earth in 2029. Fortunately, additional observations completely ruled out that possibility.Since its discovery, optical and radar telescopes have tracked Apophis as it continues on its orbit around the Sun, so we know its future trajectory quite well. Current calculations show that Apophis still has a small chance of impacting Earth, less than 1 in 100,000 many decades from now, but future measurements of its position can be expected to rule out any possible impacts.The most important observations of Apophis will occur in 2029, when asteroid scientists around the world will have an opportunity to conduct a close-up study of the Apophis' size, shape, composition and possibly even its interior.At the conference, scientists will discuss questions like "How will Earth's gravity affect the asteroid as it passes by?," "Can we use Apophis' flyby to learn about an asteroid's interior?" and "Should we send a spacecraft mission to Apophis?""We already know that the close encounter with Earth will change Apophis' orbit, but our models also show the close approach could change the way this asteroid spins, and it is possible that there will be some surface changes, like small avalanches," said Davide Farnocchia, an astronomer at JPL's Center for Near Earth Objects Studies (CNEOS), who is co-chairing the April 30 session on Apophis with Brozovi&cacute."Apophis is a representative of about 2,000 currently known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs)," said Paul Chodas, director of CNEOS. "By observing Apophis during its 2029 flyby, we will gain important scientific knowledge that could one day be used for planetary defense."

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/a-planetary-quintet-is-dancing-across-the-skies

A Planetary Quintet is Dancing Across the Skies

For the next month, early risers will have a chance to feast their eyes on a rare lineup of five planets.

"When the moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars, then peace will guide the planets, and love will steer the stars."Well, it's not quite like the song about the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, but our solar system is experiencing an uncommon lineup that should be quite a treat for sky-watchers. The solar system itself hasn't changed -- it's just that the timing of the planets orbiting the sun puts them into a lineup that makes for good viewing by Earthlings.From now until about Feb. 20, early risers will stand a good chance of seeing five planets simultaneously in the pre-dawn sky: Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter (technically six, if you count the Earth you're standing on). Those planets should be visible to the naked eye. Of course, if you happen to have binoculars or a telescope, you'll get an even better view.The last appearance by the quintet on one nighttime stage was in December 2004 and January 2005. If you miss this month's viewing opportunity, the five will be back in the evening sky in late July through mid-August, but Mercury and Venus won't be easily visible from northern latitudes.If you go outside during the five-planet display, and if weather conditions are favorable, here's what you should be able to see: Jupiter will rise in the evening, then Mars will pop up after midnight, followed by Saturn, brilliant Venus, and finally, Mercury. All five will be visible from southeast to southwest between 6 and 6:30 a.m. local time, over the span. Earth's moon will also join the cosmic display from Jan. 23 to Feb. 7. During that time, the moon will shift from the west-northwest to east-southeast and will be visible near the five planets and some stars.During the day and night between Jan. 27 and 28, the morning view of the moon will switch from right of Jupiter to left of Jupiter. Then, on Feb. 1, the moon will be visible near Mars, followed by an appearance near Saturn on Feb. 3. On Feb. 6, the moon, Mercury and dazzling Venus will appear in a triangular formation before sunrise.For Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, the rare planetary lineup reminds him how far we have come in exploring our solar system."NASA spacecraft have visited each one of the five planets that we will be able to see over the next few weeks, as well as Uranus, Neptune and Pluto," Green said. "We can be proud that American curiosity, technology and determination are helping us unlock many mysteries about our solar system."

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/comet-flying-by-earth-observed-with-radar-and-infrared

Comet Flying by Earth Observed with Radar and Infrared

Astronomers captured detailed radar images of a comet that passed Earth this week.

Astronomers were watching when comet P/2016 BA14 flew past Earth on March 22. At the time of its closest approach, the comet was about 2.2 million miles (3.5 million kilometers) away, making it the third closest comet flyby in recorded history (see"A 'Tail' of Two Comets"). Radar images from the flyby indicate that the comet is about 3,000 feet (1 kilometer) in diameter.The scientists used the Goldstone Solar System Radar in California's Mojave Desert to track the comet. "We were able to obtain very detailed radar images of the comet nucleus over three nights around the time of closest approach," said Shantanu Naidu, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who works with the radar team and led the observations during the comet's flyby. "We can see surface features as small as 8 meters per pixel.DOWNLOAD VIDEO Flyby Comet Imaged By Radar"The radar images show that the comet has an irregular shape: looks like a brick on one side and a pear on the other," Naidu said. "We can see quite a few signatures related to topographic features such as large flat regions, small concavities and ridges on the surface of the nucleus."According to the new radar observations, comet P/2016 BA14 appears to spin around its axis once every 35 to 40 hours.Vishnu Reddy, of the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona, also observed comet P/2016 BA14 using the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Data collected (infrared spectra) indicate that the comet reflects less than 3 percent of the sunlight that falls on its surface. Comet nuclei are as dark as fresh asphalt. However, infrared spectra can often yield clues to the makeup of these primitive denizens of the solar system.More information on the IRTF observations of comet P/2016 BA14 is available at:http://www.psi.edu/news/darkcomet2The Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) website has a complete list of recent and upcoming close approaches of comets and asteroids, as well as all other data on the orbits of known near-Earth objects, so scientists, the media and the public can track information on known objects:http://neo.jpl.nasa.govFor more information about NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefenseFor asteroid and comet news and updates, follow AsteroidWatch on Twitter:twitter.com/AsteroidWatch

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/ingenuity-allows-nasa-scatterometer-to-study-ice-rainforests

Ingenuity Allows NASA Scatterometer to Study Ice, Rainforests

Recent images produced from the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) are giving scientists new insights into the Antarctic ice sheet and the Amazon rainforest after researchers devised ways of using the ocean-monitoring instrument to study land and ice.

Recent images produced from the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) are giving scientists new insights into the Antarctic ice sheet and the Amazon rainforest after researchers devised ways of using the ocean-monitoring instrument to study land and ice.The scatterometer's primary function is to study winds over the oceans, but a scientist at Brigham Young University (BYU), Provo, Utah, has come up with a way of enhancing the resolution of the instrument's radar backscatter to take a detailed look at land and ice surfaces as well."A radar scatterometer measures the radar backscattering cross-section of the Earth's surface. Measurements of the backscatter over the ocean are used to infer the near-surface wind speed and direction, but can also be used over land to study ice and vegetation," said Dr. David Long, an NSCAT team member at BYU. "Areas which reflect more microwaves are typically rougher and appear brighter in the images than smoother areas which reflect less. The electrical properties of the surface also affect the image brightness. This is the first time we've been able to provide rapid, global coverage that is both uniform and accurate at this resolution."The polar regions play a central role in regulating global climate, and it is important to accurately record and monitor the extent and surface conditions of the Earth's major ice masses, according to Long. Scientists are using the Antarctic image to understand the effects of the ice pack on the ocean and climate systems. The image shows variations in the ice sheet, as well as a "super-iceberg" that broke off the Thwaites ice tongue and is now circulating in the sea-ice pack."Spaceborne radar remote sensors are uniquely well-suited for mapping the polar regions since the radar can image the surface through clouds and both day and night. Similarly, radars are also useful for vegetation studies because different vegetation types and densities have different radar responses," Long said. "Tropical rainforests are critical to the climatic health of the Earth and are thought to contain half of all the world's species."The new NSCAT image shows the extent of the tropical rainforest. The false color image is being used by scientists to identify types of vegetation on the surface which allows them to differentiate between areas of tropical rainforest and regions of woodlands and savanna."This technique of using the scatterometer to study land and ice is a great new application of this radar instrument. We can get measurements of ice extent for use in research and as an aid to shipping and we get them accurately and frequently under all weather conditions," said Jim Graf, the NSCAT Project Manger at JPL. "We can view large-scale vegetation changes enabling us to track the processes of desertification and deforestation. Data from the NSCAT instrument is extremely versatile and can be used to measure short-term changes over the oceans and long-term changes over the land and ice."The scatterometer uses an array of stick-like antennas that radiate microwave pulses in the Ku-band across broad regions of the Earth's surface. A small fraction of the energy in the radar pulses is reflected back and captured by NSCAT's antennas. At any given time NSCAT's array of six dual beam antennas scans two swaths of ocean or land --one on either side of the satellite's near-polar, sun-synchronous 800-kilometer (500-mile) orbit. Each swath is 600 kilometers (375 miles) wide. The swaths are separated by a gap of about 350 kilometers (215 miles) directly below the satellite, where no data collection is possible.The scatterometer makes 50-kilometer (30-mile) resolution measurements of the wind over the oceans. This resolution is too coarse for most land and ice studies, but through computer processing of the data, Long is able to produce images with a resolution of 8 kilometers (4.8 miles) or better. "This resolution is still coarse when compared with photographs, but it is nearly ideal for studying many land and ice processes," Long concluded.The NSCAT instrument was launched August 16, 1996, aboard Japan's Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS). ADEOS is an international global change research mission of the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), which includes instruments from the United States, Japan and France and investigators from many other countries. The satellite is a key part of an international environmental research effort that includes NASA's Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) program, a long- term, coordinated research effort to study the Earth as a global environmental system. The goal of MTPE is to develop a better scientific understanding of natural environmental changes and to distinguish between natural and human-made changes and impacts.The Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed, built and manages the NSCAT instrument for NASA's Office of Mission to Planet Earth, Washington, D.C.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/new-sea-level-satellite-arrives-at-california-launch-site

New Sea Level Satellite Arrives at California Launch Site

The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich spacecraft will launch from the U.S. West Coast aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in November.

The world's latest ocean-monitoring satellite has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Central California to be prepared for its Nov. 10 launch. The product of a historic U.S.-European partnership, the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich spacecraft touched down at Vandenberg in an Antonov 124 aircraft at around 10:40 a.m. PDT (1:40 p.m. EDT) on Sept. 24 after a two-day journey from an IABG engineering facility near Munich, Germany."The spacecraft had a smooth trip from Europe and is in good shape," said Parag Vaze, the mission's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "Final preparations are under way to see the satellite safely into Earth orbit in a little under seven weeks."The satellite is named after Dr. Michael Freilich, the former director of NASA's Earth Science Division and an instrumental figure in advancing ocean observations from space. Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is one of two identical spacecraft that compose the Sentinel-6/Jason-CS (Continuity of Service) mission developed in partnership with ESA (the European Space Agency). ESA is developing the new Sentinel family of missions to support the operational needs of the European Union's Copernicus program, the EU's Earth observation program managed by the European Commission. The spacecraft's twin, Sentinel-6B, will launch in 2025."It has been a long journey of planning, development, and testing for the mission team," said Pierrik Vuilleumier, the mission's project manager at ESA."We are proud to work with our international partners on such a critical mission for sea level studies and are looking forward to many years of Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich taking critical sea level and atmospheric data from orbit."Once in orbit, each satellite will collect sea surface height measurements down to the centimeter for more than 90% of the world's oceans. They'll be contributing to a nearly 30-year-long dataset built by an uninterrupted series of spacecraft that started with the TOPEX/Poseidon mission in the early 1990s and that continues today with Jason-3. Instruments aboard the spacecraft will also provide atmospheric data that will improve weather forecasts, help to track hurricanes, and bolster climate models.Although Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich has already undergonerigorous testing, it will go through a final checkout at the SpaceX payload processing facility at Vandenberg to verify that the satellite is healthy and ready for launch.Once tests are complete, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will be mounted atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base's Space Launch Complex 4E. The launch is scheduled for 11:31 a.m. PST (2:31 p.m. EST) on Nov. 10."The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite will extend our observation record of global sea level, advance our understanding of the Earth as a system, and inform decision-makers, from federal to local levels, who must manage the risks associated with rising sea level," said Karen St. Germain, director of NASA's Earth Science Division in Washington.Sentinel-6/Jason-CS is being jointly developed by ESA, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), NASA, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with funding support from the European Commission and technical support from France's National Centre for Space Studies (CNES).JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, is contributing three science instruments for each Sentinel-6 satellite: the Advanced Microwave Radiometer, the Global Navigation Satellite System - Radio Occultation, and the Laser Retroreflector Array. NASA is also contributing launch services, ground systems supporting operation of the NASA science instruments, the science data processors for two of these instruments, and support for the international Ocean Surface Topography Science Team.To learn more about NASA's study of sea level science, visit:https://sealevel.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-explores-a-winter-wonderland-on-mars

NASA Explores a Winter Wonderland on Mars

Cube-shaped snow, icy landscapes, and frost are all part of the Red Planet’s coldest season.

When winter comes to Mars, the surface is transformed into a truly otherworldly holiday scene. Snow, ice, and frost accompany the season’s sub-zero temperatures. Some of the coldest of these occur at the planet’s poles, where it gets as low as minus 190 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 123 degrees Celsius).Cold as it is, don’t expect snow drifts worthy of the Rocky Mountains. No region of Mars gets more than a few feet of snow, most of which falls over extremely flat areas. And the Red Planet’s elliptical orbit means it takes many more months for winter to come around: a single Mars year is around two Earth years.Snow falls and ice and frost form on Mars, too. NASA’s spacecraft on and orbiting the Red Planet reveal the similarities to and differences from how we experience winter on Earth. Mars scientist Sylvain Piqueux of JPL explains in this video.Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechStill, the planet offers unique winter phenomena that scientists have been able to study, thanks to NASA’s robotic Mars explorers. Here are a few of the things they’ve discovered:Two Kinds of SnowMartian snow comes in two varieties: water ice and carbon dioxide, or dry ice. Because Martian air is so thin and the temperatures so cold, water-ice snow sublimates, or becomes a gas, before it even touches the ground. Dry-ice snow actually does reach the ground.“Enough falls that you could snowshoe across it,” said Sylvain Piqueux, a Mars scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California whose research includes a variety of winter phenomena. “If you were looking for skiing, though, you’d have to go into a crater or cliffside, where snow could build up on a sloped surface.”How We Know It SnowsSnow occurs only at the coldest extremes of Mars: at the poles, under cloud cover, and at night. Cameras on orbiting spacecraft can’t see through those clouds, and surface missions can’t survive in the extreme cold. As a result, no images of falling snow have ever been captured. But scientists know it happens, thanks to a few special science instruments.NASA’sMars Reconnaissance Orbitercan peer through cloud cover using itsMars Climate Sounderinstrument, which detects light in wavelengths imperceptible to the human eye. That ability has allowed scientists to detect carbon dioxide snow falling to the ground. And in 2008, NASA sent the Phoenix lander within 1,000 miles (about 1,600 kilometers) of Mars’ north pole, where it used a laser instrument todetect water-ice snowfalling to the surface.Cubic SnowflakesBecause of how water molecules bond together when they freeze, snowflakes on Earth havesix sides. The same principle applies to all crystals: The way in which atoms arrange themselves determines a crystal’s shape. In the case of carbon dioxide, molecules in dry ice always bond in forms of four when frozen.“Because carbon dioxide ice has a symmetry of four, we know dry-ice snowflakes would be cube-shaped,” Piqueux said. “Thanks to the Mars Climate Sounder, we can tell these snowflakes would be smaller than the width of a human hair.”The HiRISE camera captured this image of the edge of a crater in the middle of winter. The south-facing slope of the crater, which receives less sunlight, has formed patchy, bright frost, seen in blue in this enhanced-color image.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of ArizonaFull Image DetailsJack Frost Nipping at Your RoverWater and carbon dioxide can each form frost on Mars, and both types of frost appear far more widely across the planet than snow does. The Viking landers saw water frost when they studied Mars in the 1970s, while NASA’s Odyssey orbiter hasobserved frost forming and sublimating awayin the morning Sun.HiRISE captured this spring scene, when water ice frozen in the soil had split the ground into polygons. Translucent carbon dioxide ice allows sunlight to shine through and heat gases that escape through vents, releasing fans of darker material onto the surface (shown as blue in this enhanced-color image).Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of ArizonaFull Image DetailsWinter’s Wondrous EndPerhaps the most fabulous discovery comes at the end of winter, when all the ice that built up begins to “thaw” and sublimate into the atmosphere. As it does so, this ice takes on bizarre and beautiful shapes that have reminded scientists ofspiders,Dalmatian spots,fried eggs, andSwiss cheese.This “thawing” also causes geysers to erupt: Translucent ice allows sunlight to heat up gas underneath it, and that gas eventually bursts out, sendingfans of dustonto the surface. Scientists have actually begun to study these fans as a way to learn more aboutwhich way Martian winds are blowing.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-juno-mission-detects-jupiter-wave-trains

NASA's Juno Mission Detects Jupiter Wave Trains

The JunoCam imager aboard NASA's Juno mission has resolved smaller distances between crests of atmospheric waves at Jupiter than ever seen before.

Massive structures of moving air that appear like waves in Jupiter's atmosphere were first detected by NASA's Voyager missions during their flybys of the gas-giant world in 1979. The JunoCam camera aboard NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter has also imaged the atmosphere. JunoCam data has detected atmospheric wave trains, towering atmospheric structures that trail one after the other as they roam the planet, with most concentrated near Jupiter's equator.The JunoCam imager has resolved smaller distances between individual wave crests in these trains than ever seen before. This research provides valuable information on both the dynamics of Jupiter's atmosphere and its structure in the regions underneath the waves."JunoCam has counted more distinct wave trains than any other spacecraft mission since Voyager," said Glenn Orton, a Juno scientist from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "The trains, which consist of as few as two waves and as many as several dozen, can have a distance between crests as small as about 40 miles (65 kilometers) and as large as about 760 miles (1,200 kilometers). The shadow of the wave structure in one image allowed us to estimate the height of one wave to be about 6 miles (10 kilometers) high."Most of the waves are seen in elongated wave trains, spread out in an east-west direction, with wave crests that are perpendicular to the orientation of the train. Other fronts in similar wave trains tilt significantly with respect to the orientation of the wave train, and still other wave trains follow slanted or meandering paths."The waves can appear close to other Jovian atmospheric features, near vortices or along flow lines, and others exhibit no relationship with anything nearby," said Orton. "Some wave trains appear as if they are converging, and others appear to be overlapping, possibly at two different atmospheric levels. In one case, wave fronts appear to be radiating outward from the center of a cyclone."Although analysis is ongoing, most waves are expected to be atmospheric gravity waves - up-and-down ripples that form in the atmosphere above something that disturbs air flow, such as a thunderstorm updraft, disruptions of flow around other features, or from some other disturbance that JunoCam does not detect.The JunoCam instrument is uniquely qualified to make such a discovery. JunoCam is a color, visible-light camera which offers a wide-angle field of view designed to capture remarkable pictures of Jupiter's poles and cloud tops. As Juno's eyes, it helps provide context for the spacecraft's other instruments. JunoCam was included on the spacecraft primarily for public engagement purposes, although its images also are helpful to the science team.Juno launched on Aug. 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and arrived in orbit around Jupiter on July 4, 2016. To date, it has completed 15 science passes over Jupiter. Juno's 16th science pass will be on Oct. 29. During these flybys, Juno is probing beneath the obscuring cloud cover of Jupiter and studying its auroras to learn more about the planet's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere.JPL manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. The Juno mission is part of the New Frontiers Program managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, Colorado, built the spacecraft. JPL is a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California.More information on the Juno mission is available at:https://www.nasa.gov/junohttps://www.missionjuno.swri.eduThe public can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at:http://www.facebook.com/NASAJunohttp://www.twitter.com/NASAJuno

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/prolific-sea-observing-satellite-turns-10

Prolific Sea-Observing Satellite Turns 10

An international oceanography satellite that is tracking the ongoing rise in global sea level marks its 10th year in orbit today.

An international oceanography satellite that is tracking the ongoing rise in global sea level marks its 10th year in orbit today.Designed for a three-to-five-year mission, the joint U.S./European Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM) on the Jason-2 satellite has now made more than 47,000 trips around our home planet, measuring sea level change across the globe, observing ocean currents, studying climate phenomena such as El Nino and La Nina, and monitoring the long-term rise in global mean sea level. In January 2016, it was joined in orbit by its follow-on mission, Jason-3. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages NASA's portion of both missions.In July 2017, Jason-2 began a new science mission when it was maneuvered into a slightly lower orbit. In this new orbit, Jason-2 is collecting data along a series of very closely spaced ground tracks, just 5 miles (8 kilometers) apart. It will take just over a year for Jason-2 to complete one cycle of these new ground tracks, which provide a very accurate and high-resolution estimate of the mean sea surface. The pull of gravity from underwater mountains and other features of the sea floor helps to shape the mean sea surface. These new surface measurements are already being used by scientists to improve maps of the shape and depth of the sea floor, resolving many previously unknown seamounts and other geologic features on the ocean bottom. The new maps will also allow for advances in ocean modeling, naval operations and solid Earth dynamics.Jason-2 data from the new orbit are used by operational agencies to provide societal and strategic benefits, such as real-time information used for deriving ocean currents; improving marine, fishery and naval operations; and calculating tropical cyclone heat potential to improve forecasts of the intensity of tropical hurricanes and cyclones."Along with Jason-3, Jason-2 has extended the record of global sea level rise into a third decade," said Glenn Shirtliffe, Jason-2 project manager at JPL.NASA is currently working with its partners -- the European Space Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Centre National d'etudes Spatiales and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites -- on future generations of satellite altimeters. The instruments are projected for launch in the next decade. They include the Sentinel-6/Jason Continuity of Service (Jason-CS) and Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) missions."In addition to measuring ocean circulation and revealing the ocean's role in Earth's climate, Jason-2 and Jason-3 measure the rise in global sea level caused by global warming," said Josh Willis, JPL oceanographer and NASA's project scientist for both missions. "Melting ice and expanding seawater drive global sea levels higher and higher each year. The rise has become a powerful reminder of how fast humans are changing the climate. These missions keep our finger on the pulse of climate change."Other significant science results from the Jason-2 mission include studies of ocean circulation; the ties between the ocean and the atmosphere; and improved global climate forecasts and predictions."The 10th anniversary of the launch of Jason-2 is also a landmark in the development of operational oceanography, as this was the first Jason mission involving two operational agencies, EUMETSAT and NOAA," said EUMETSAT Director-General Alain Ratier. "This paved the way for the transition from highly successful research missions to an operational altimeter system, which has now turned to reality with Jason-3, Jason-CS/Sentinel-6 and Sentinel-3 providing data until 2030.""After 10 years of excellent service, we're excited that Jason-2 is continuing to help forecast hurricane intensity and monitor winds and waves, while taking on a new mission of mapping unexplored parts of the ocean," said Eric Leuliette, NOAA's Jason program and project scientist.For more information on Jason-2 and other satellite altimetry missions, visit:http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/andhttps://www.aviso.altimetry.fr/en/missions/current-missions/jason-2.htmlOSTM/Jason-2 is a joint satellite mission operated by CNES, EUMETSAT, NOAA and NASA.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/the-mars-insight-landing-site-is-just-plain-perfect

The Mars InSight Landing Site Is Just Plain Perfect

If the InSight landing zone were ice cream, it would be vanilla.

No doubt about it, NASA explores some of the most awe-inspiring locations in our solar system and beyond. Once seen, who can forget the majesty of astronaut Jim Irwin standing before the stark beauty of the Moon'sHadley Apenninemountain range, of the Hubble Space Telescope's gorgeous"Pillars of Creation" or Cassini's magnificentmosaicof Saturn?Mars also plays a part in this visually compelling equation, with the high-definition imagery from the Curiosity rover of the ridges and rounded buttes at the base ofMount Sharpbringing to mind the majesty of the American Southwest. That said, Elysium Planitia - the site chosen for the Nov. 26 landing of NASA's InSight mission to Mars - will more than likely never be mentioned with those above because it is, well, plain."If Elysium Planitia were a salad, it would consist of romaine lettuce and kale - no dressing," said InSight principal investigator Bruce Banerdt at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "If it were an ice cream, it would be vanilla."Yes, the landing site of NASA's next Mars mission may very well look like a stadium parking lot, but that is the way the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) project likes it."Previous missions to the Red Planet have investigated its surface by studying its canyons, volcanoes, rocks and soil," said Banerdt. "But the signatures of the planet's formation processes can be found only by sensing and studying evidence buried far below the surface. It is InSight's job to study the deep interior of Mars, taking the planet's vital signs - its pulse, temperature and reflexes."Taking those vital signs will help the InSight science team look back to a time when the rocky planets of the solar system formed. The investigations will depend on three instruments:A six-sensor seismometer called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) will record seismic waves traveling through the interior structure of the planet. Studying seismic waves will tell scientists what might be creating the waves. (On Mars, scientists suspect that the culprits may be marsquakes or meteorites striking the surface.)The mission's Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) will burrow deeper than any other scoop, drill or probe on Mars before to gauge how much heat is flowing out of the planet. Its observations will shed light on whether Earth and Mars are made of the same stuff.Finally, InSight's Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE) experiment will use the lander's radios to assess the wobble of Mars' rotation axis, providing information about the planet's core.For InSight to do its work, the team needed a landing site that checked off several boxes, because as a three-legged lander - not a rover - InSight will remain wherever it touches down."Picking a good landing site on Mars is a lot like picking a good home: It's all about location, location, location," said Tom Hoffman, InSight project manager at JPL. "And for the first time ever, the evaluation for a Mars landing site had to consider what lay below the surface of Mars. We needed not just a safe place to land, but also a workspace that's penetrable by our 16-foot-long (5-meter) heat-flow probe."The site also needs to be bright enough and warm enough to power the solar cells while keeping its electronics within temperature limits for an entire Martian year (26 Earth months).So the team focused on a band around the equator, where the lander's solar array would have adequate sunlight to power its systems year-round. Finding an area that would be safe enough for InSight to land and then deploy its solar panels and instruments without obstructions took a little longer."The site has to be a low-enough elevation to have sufficient atmosphere above it for a safe landing, because the spacecraft will rely first on atmospheric friction with its heat shield and then on a parachute digging into Mars' tenuous atmosphere for a large portion of its deceleration," said Hoffman. "And after the chute has fallen away and the braking rockets have kicked in for final descent, there needs to be a flat expanse to land on - not too undulating and relatively free of rocks that could tip the tri-legged Mars lander."Of 22 sites considered, only Elysium Planitia, Isidis Planitia and Valles Marineris met the basic engineering constraints. To grade the three remaining contenders, reconnaissance images from NASA's Mars orbiters were scoured and weather records searched. Eventually, Isidis Planitia and Valles Marineris were ruled out for being too rocky and windy.That left the 81-mile long, 17-mile-wide (130-kilometer-long, 27-kilometer-wide) landing ellipse on the western edge of a flat, smooth expanse of lava plain."If you were a Martian coming to explore Earth's interior like we are exploring Mars' interior, it wouldn't matter if you put down in the middle of Kansas or the beaches of Oahu," said Banerdt. "While I'm looking forward to those first images from the surface, I am even more eager to see the first data sets revealing what is happening deep below our landing pads. The beauty of this mission is happening below the surface. Elysium Planitia is perfect."After a 205-day journey that began on May 5, NASA's InSight mission will touch down on Mars on Nov. 26 a little before 3 p.m. EST (12 p.m. PST). Its solar panels will unfurl within a few hours of touchdown. Mission engineers and scientists will take their time assessing their "workspace" prior to deploying SEIS and HP3on the surface - about three months after landing - and begin the science in earnest.InSight was the 12th selection in NASA's series of Discovery-class missions. Created in 1992, the Discovery Program sponsors frequent, cost-capped solar system exploration missions with highly focused scientific goals.JPL manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission.A number of European partners, including France's Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), support the InSight mission. CNES provided the SEIS instrument, with significant contributions from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH) in Switzerland, Imperial College and Oxford University in the United Kingdom, and JPL. DLR provided the HP3instrument.For more information about InSight, visit:https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/For more information about NASA's Mars missions, go to:https://mars.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-europa-clipper-gets-its-wheels-for-traveling-in-deep-space

NASA’s Europa Clipper Gets Its Wheels for Traveling in Deep Space

The enormous spacecraft that will head to Jupiter’s moon Europa uses four large reaction wheels to help keep it oriented.

Just as NASA’s Mars rovers rely on robust wheels to roam the Red Planet and conduct science, some orbiters rely on wheels, too – in this case, reaction wheels – to stay pointed in the right direction. Engineers and technicians at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California recently installed four reaction wheels onEuropa Clipper, which will rely on them during its journey at Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.When NASA’s spacecraft heads through deep space, slips into orbit around Jupiter, and collects science observations while flying dozens of times by Europa, the wheels rotate the orbiter so that its antennas can communicate with Earth and its science instruments, including cameras, can stay oriented.Engineers and technicians work together to install reaction wheels on the underside of the main body of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, which is in its assembly, test, and launch operations phase at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NASA/JPL-CaltechFull image detailsTwo feet wide and made of steel, aluminum, and titanium, the wheels spin rapidly to create torque that causes the orbiter to rotate in the opposite direction. Isaac Newton’s third law of motion also applies in deep space and explains the underlying phenomenon: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The reaction wheels cause the spacecraft to react to the spinning action of the wheels.Here’s one way to visualize how reaction wheels work: Imagine you are sitting in a swivel chair and lift your feet off the floor so that you are free to rotate. If you jerk your torso one direction, the chair and your legs will rotate the opposite direction. The reaction wheels work the same way: As the reaction wheel’s motor accelerates the metal wheel in one direction, the spacecraft experiences an acceleration in the opposite direction.Without those reaction wheels, Europa Clipper wouldn’t be able to do its science investigations when it arrives at the Jupiter system in 2030 after its 2024 launch. Scientists believe Europa harbors a vast internal ocean that may have conditions suitable for supporting life. The spacecraft will gather data on the moon’s atmosphere, surface, and interior – information that will help scientists learn more about the ocean, the ice crust, and potential plumes that may be venting subsurface water into space.During its orbits around Jupiter, Europa Clipper will rely on reaction wheels to help it perform thousands of turns, or “slews.” Although the spacecraft could perform some of those maneuvers with thrusters, its thrusters need fuel – a finite resource aboard the orbiter. The reaction wheels will run on electricity provided by the spacecraft’s vast solar arrays.Watch live: Europa Clipper being built in the clean roomSee more images of Europa Clipper coming togetherThe trade-off is that the reaction wheels work slowly. Europa Clipper’s reaction wheels will take about 90 minutes to rotate the craft 180 degrees – a movement so gradual that, from a distance, it would be imperceptible to the human eye. The rotation of the spacecraft will be three times slower than the minute hand on a clock.Also, they can wear out over time. Ithappened on NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, requiring engineers to figure out how to rotate using thrusters with the available fuel. To address this, engineers have installed four wheels on Europa Clipper even though only three are needed to maneuver. They alternate which three wheels are in operation to even the wear. That leaves them with a “spare” wheel if one of the others fails.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERInstalling the wheels was one of the most recent steps of the phase known as assembly, test, and launch operations. Science instruments continue to arrive at JPL to be added to the spacecraft. Next, a variety of tests will be conducted, as the spacecraft moves toward its October 2024 launch period. After traveling over 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers), Europa Clipper will be set to begin unlocking the secrets of this icy world.More About the MissionMissions such as Europa Clipper contribute to the field ofastrobiology, the interdisciplinary research field that studies the conditions of distant worlds that could harbor life as we know it. While Europa Clipper is not a life-detection mission, it will conduct a detailed exploration of Europa and investigate whether the icy moon, with its subsurface ocean, has the capability to support life. Understanding Europa’s habitability will help scientists better understand how life developed on Earth and the potential for finding life beyond our planet.Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. APL designed the main spacecraft body in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.More information about Europa can be found here:europa.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/greenland-antarctica-melting-six-times-faster-than-in-the-1990s

Greenland, Antarctica Melting Six Times Faster Than in the 1990s

The two regions have lost 6.4 trillion tons of ice in three decades; unabated, this rate of melting could cause flooding that affects hundreds of millions of people by 2100.

Observations from 11 satellite missions monitoring the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have revealed that the regions are losing ice six times faster than they were in the 1990s. If the current melting trend continues, the regions will be on track to match the "worst-case" scenario of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of an extra 6.7 inches (17 centimeters) of sea level rise by 2100.The findings, published online March 12 in the journal Nature from an international team of 89 polar scientists from 50 organizations, are the most comprehensive assessment to date of the changing ice sheets. The Ice Sheet Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise team combined 26 surveys to calculate changes in the mass of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets between 1992 and 2018.The assessment was supported by NASA and the European Space Agency. The surveys used measurements from satellites including NASA'sIce, Cloud, and land Elevation Satelliteand the joint NASA-German Aerospace CenterGravity Recovery and Climate Experiment. Andrew Shepherd at the University of Leeds in England and Erik Ivins at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California led the study.The team calculated that the two ice sheets together lost 81 billion tons per year in the 1990s, compared with 475 billion tons of ice per year in the 2010s - a sixfold increase. All total, Greenland and Antarctica have lost 6.4 trillion tons of ice since the 1990s.The resulting meltwater boosted global sea levels by 0.7 inches (17.8 millimeters). Together, the melting polar ice sheets are responsible for a third of all sea level rise. Of this total sea level rise, 60% resulted from Greenland's ice loss and 40% resulted from Antarctica's."Satellite observations of polar ice are essential for monitoring and predicting how climate change could affect ice losses and sea level rise," said Ivins. "While computer simulations allow us to make projections from climate change scenarios, the satellite measurements provide prima facie, rather irrefutable, evidence."The IPCC in its Fifth Assessment Report issued in 2014 predicted global sea levels would rise 28 inches (71 centimeters) by 2100. The Ice Sheet Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise team's studies show that ice loss from Antarctica and Greenland tracks with the IPCC's worst-case scenario.Combined losses from both ice sheets peaked at 552 billion tons per year in 2010 and averaged 475 billion tons per year for the remainder of the decade. The peak loss coincided with several years of intense surface melting in Greenland, and last summer's Arctic heat wave means that 2019 will likely set a new record for polar ice sheet loss, but further analysis is needed. IPCC projections indicate the resulting sea level rise could put 400 million people at risk of annual coastal flooding by the end of the century."Every centimeter of sea level rise leads to coastal flooding and coastal erosion, disrupting people's lives around the planet," said Shepherd.As to what is leading to the ice loss, Antarctica's outlet glaciers are being melted by the ocean, which causes them to speed up. Whereas this accounts for the majority of Antarctica's ice loss, it accounts for half of Greenland's ice loss; the rest is caused by rising air temperatures melting the surface of its ice sheet.For more information about the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise, visit:http://imbie.org/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/new-gravity-map-gives-best-view-yet-inside-mars

New Gravity Map Gives Best View Yet Inside Mars

A new map of Mars' gravity made with three NASA spacecraft is the most detailed to date, providing a revealing glimpse into the hidden interior of the Red Planet.

A new map of Mars' gravity made with three NASA spacecraft is the most detailed to date, providing a revealing glimpse into the hidden interior of the Red Planet."Gravity maps allow us to see inside a planet, just as a doctor uses an X-ray to see inside a patient," said Antonio Genova of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge. "The new gravity map will be helpful for future Mars exploration, because better knowledge of the planet's gravity anomalies helps mission controllers insert spacecraft more precisely into orbit about Mars. Furthermore, the improved resolution of our gravity map will help us understand the still-mysterious formation of specific regions of the planet." Genova, who is affiliated with MIT but is located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is the lead author of a paper on this research published online March 5 in the journal Icarus.The improved resolution of the new gravity map suggests a new explanation for how some features formed across the boundary that divides the relatively smooth northern lowlands from heavily cratered southern highlands. Also, the team confirmed that Mars has a liquid outer core of molten rock by analyzing tides in the Martian crust and mantle caused by the gravitational pull of the sun and the two moons of Mars. Finally, by observing how Mars' gravity changed over 11 years - the period of an entire cycle of solar activity -- the team inferred the massive amount of carbon dioxide that freezes out of the atmosphere onto a Martian polar ice cap when it experiences winter. They also observed how that mass moves between the south pole and the north pole with the change of season in each hemisphere.The map was derived using Doppler and range tracking data collected by NASA's Deep Space Network from three NASA spacecraft in orbit around Mars: Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), Mars Odyssey (ODY), and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Like all planets, Mars is lumpy, which causes the gravitational pull felt by spacecraft in orbit around it to change. For example, the pull will be a bit stronger over a mountain, and slightly weaker over a canyon.Slight differences in Mars' gravity changed the trajectory of the NASA spacecraft orbiting the planet, which altered the signal being sent from the spacecraft to the Deep Space Network. These small fluctuations in the orbital data were used to build a map of the Martian gravity field.The gravity field was recovered using about 16 years of data that were continuously collected in orbit around Mars. However, orbital changes from uneven gravity are tiny, and other forces that can perturb the motion of the spacecraft had to be carefully accounted for, such as the force of sunlight on the spacecraft's solar panels and drag from the Red Planet's thin upper atmosphere. It took two years of analysis and computer modeling to remove the motion not caused by gravity."With this new map, we've been able to see gravity anomalies as small as about 62 miles (100 kilometers) across, and we've determined the crustal thickness of Mars with a resolution of almost 75 miles (around 120 kilometers)," said Genova. "The better resolution of the new map helps interpret how the crust of the planet changed over Mars' history in many regions."For example, an area of lower gravity between Acidalia Planitia and Tempe Terra was interpreted before as a system of buried channels that delivered water and sediments from Mars' southern highlands into the northern lowlands billions of years ago when the Martian climate was wetter than it is today. The new map reveals that this low gravity anomaly is definitely larger and follows the boundary between the highlands and the lowlands. This system of gravity troughs is unlikely to be only due to buried channels because in places the region is elevated above the surrounding plains. The new gravity map shows that some of these features run perpendicular to the local topography slope, against what would have been the natural downhill flow of water.An alternative explanation is that this anomaly may be a consequence of a flexure or bending of the lithosphere -- the strong, outermost layer of the planet -- due to the formation of the Tharsis region. Tharsis is a volcanic plateau on Mars thousands of miles across with the largest volcanoes in the solar system. As the Tharsis volcanoes grew, the surrounding lithosphere buckled under their immense weight.The new gravity field also allowed the team to confirm indications from previous gravity solutions that Mars has a liquid outer core of molten rock. The new gravity solution improved the measurement of the Martian tides, which will be used by geophysicists to improve the model of Mars' interior.Changes in Martian gravity over time have been previously measured using the MGS and ODY missions to monitor the polar ice caps. For the first time, the team used MRO data to continue monitoring their mass. The team has determined that when one hemisphere experiences winter, approximately 3 to 4 trillion tons of carbon dioxide freezes out of the atmosphere onto the northern and southern polar caps, respectively. This is about 12 to 16 percent of the mass of the entire Martian atmosphere. NASA's Viking missions first observed this massive seasonal precipitation of carbon dioxide. The new observation confirms numerical predictions from the Mars Global Reference Atmospheric Model - 2010.The research was funded by grants from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission and NASA's Mars Data Analysis Program. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Odyssey missions.For images and video, refer to:http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/mars-gravity-map

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/migrating-martian-dunes

Migrating Martian Dunes

Images taken 15 months apart show active changes in dark dunes of Mars' Nili Patera region.

Changes in Ripples on Martian Dunes in Nili PateraThree pairs of before and after images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter illustrate movement of ripples on dark sand dunes in the Nili Patera region of Mars.› Full image and captionChanges at Edges of Dark Dunes in Nili Patera, MarsTwo pairs of side-by-side, before and after images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter illustrate changes in the shape of edges of dark sand dunes in the Nili Patera region of Mars.› Full image and captionLocation Map for Images of Changing Martian DunesThe upper portion of this map is from an observation by the Context Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of a field of dark sand dunes in the Nili Patera region of Mars. The white inscribed rectangles show overlapping footprints of observations made by the same orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera 15 months apart.› Full image and captionChanges on Dune Slip Face, Nili Patera, MarsBefore and after images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter illustrate occurrence of new streaks on the slip face of a dark sand dune in the Nili Patera region of Mars. The slip face is on a dune's downwind side.› Full image and caption

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/dawn-enters-science-orbit

Dawn Enters Science Orbit

NASA's Dawn spacecraft entered into its first science orbit on Thursday, April 23, as scheduled.

Dawn Mission Status ReportUPDATE April 27, 2015: Dawn began its science operations at 7:25 p.m. PDT/10:25 p.m. EDT on Friday, April 24 and performed as expected over the weekend.NASA's Dawn spacecraft entered into its first science orbit on Thursday, April 23, as scheduled. Following a delay in communicating a command sequence, the spacecraft briefly entered into safe mode and awaited further instructions, which were sent by mission controllers. As of early Friday, April 24, the spacecraft returned to normal operating mode and the mission team continues to prepare for science data collection.More information on the Dawn mission is online at:http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-mars-rover-images-honor-apollo-12

NASA Mars Rover Images Honor Apollo 12

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has visited and photographed two craters informally named for the spacecraft that carried men to the moon 41 years ago this week.

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has visited and photographed two craters informally named for the spacecraft that carried men to the moon 41 years ago this week.Opportunity drove past "Yankee Clipper" crater on Nov. 4 and reached "Intrepid crater" on Nov. 9. For NASA's Apollo 12, the second mission to put humans onto the moon, the command and service module was called Yankee Clipper, piloted by Dick Gordon, and the lunar module was named Intrepid, piloted by Alan Bean and commanded by the late Pete Conrad. The Intrepid landed on the moon with Bean and Conrad on Nov. 19, 1969, while Yankee Clipper orbited overhead. Their landing came a mere four months after Apollo 11's first lunar landing.This week, Bean wrote to the Mars Exploration Rover team: "I just talked with Dick Gordon about the wonderful honor you have bestowed upon our Apollo 12 spacecraft. Forty-one years ago today, we were approaching the moon in Yankee Clipper with Intrepid in tow. We were excited to have the opportunity to perform some important exploration of a place in the universe other than planet Earth where humans had not gone before. We were anxious to give it our best effort. You and your team have that same opportunity. Give it your best effort."Rover science team member James Rice, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., suggested using the Apollo 12 names. He was applying the rover team's convention of using names of historic ships of exploration for the informal names of craters that Opportunity sees in the Meridian Planum region of Mars."The Apollo missions were so inspiring when I was young, I remember all the dates. When we were approaching these craters, I realized we were getting close to the Nov. 19 anniversary for Apollo 12," Rice said. He sent Bean and Gordon photographs that Opportunity took of the two craters.The images are available online athttp://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13593andhttp://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13596. Intrepid crater is about 20 meters (66 feet) in diameter. Yankee Clipper crater is about half that width.After a two-day stop to photograph the rocks exposed at Intrepid, Opportunity continued on a long-term trek toward Endeavour crater, a highly eroded crater about 1,000 times wider than Intrepid. Endeavour's name comes from the ship of James Cook's first Pacific voyage.During a drive of 116.9 meters (383.5 feet) on Nov. 14, Opportunity's "odometer" passed 25 kilometers (15.53 miles). That is more than 40 times the driving-distance goal set for Opportunity to accomplish during its original three-month prime mission in 2004.Mars Exploration Project Manager John Callas, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said, "Importantly, it's not how far the rovers have gone but how much exploration and science discovery they have accomplished on behalf of all humankind."At the beginning of Opportunity's mission, the rover landed inside "Eagle crater," about the same size as Intrepid crater. The team's name for that landing-site crater paid tribute to the lunar module of Apollo 11, the first human landing on the moon. Opportunity spent two months inside Eagle crater, where it found multiple lines of evidence for a wet environment in the area's ancient past.The rover team is checking regularly for Opportunity's twin, Spirit, in case the increasing daily solar energy available at Spirit's location enables the rover to reawaken and resume communication. No signal from Spirit has been received since March 22. Spring began last week in the southern hemisphere of Mars.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rovers for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. For more information about the rovers, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/rovers.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/jpl-instrument-observes-changes-in-big-antarctic-glacier

JPL Instrument Observes Changes in Big Antarctic Glacier

JPL satellite data have helped scientists crack the case of a speeding Antarctic glacier. Understanding glacial flow processes can improve sea level forecasts.

JPL satellite data have helped scientists crack the case of a speeding Antarctic glacier. Understanding glacial flow processes can improve sea level forecasts.For more information, visit the release from the University of Maine athttp://www.umaine.edu/news/view_release.php?x=2359.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-asteroid-hunter-spacecraft-returns-first-images-after-reactivation

NASA's Asteroid Hunter Spacecraft Returns First Images after Reactivation

NASA's NEOWISE asteroid hunter, which made the most comprehensive asteroid and comet survey to date, has returned its first test images in preparation for a renewed mission.

Probe Will Assist Agency in Search for Candidates to ExploreNASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE), a spacecraft that made the most comprehensive survey to date of asteroids and comets, has returned its first set of test images in preparation for a renewed mission.NEOWISE discovered more than 34,000 asteroids and characterized 158,000 throughout the solar system during its prime mission in 2010 and early 2011. It was reactivated in September following 31 months in hibernation, to assist NASA's efforts to identify the population of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects (NEOs). NEOWISE also can assist in characterizing previously detected asteroids that could be considered potential targets for future exploration missions."NEOWISE not only gives us a better understanding of the asteroids and comets we study directly, but it will help us refine our concepts and mission operation plans for future, space-based near-Earth object cataloging missions," said Amy Mainzer, principal investigator for NEOWISE at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The spacecraft is in excellent health, and the new images look just as good as they were before hibernation. Over the next weeks and months we will be gearing up our ground-based data processing and expect to get back into the asteroid hunting business, and acquire our first previously undiscovered space rock, in the next few months."Some of the deep-space images taken by the spacecraft include a previously detected asteroid named (872) Holda. With a diameter of 26 miles (42 kilometers), this asteroid orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter in a region astronomers call the asteroid belt. The images tell researchers the quality of the spacecraft's observations is the same as during its primary mission.The spacecraft uses a 16-inch (40-centimeter) telescope and infrared cameras to seek out and discover unknown NEOs and characterize their size, albedo or reflectivity, and thermal properties. Asteroids reflect, but do not emit visible light, so data collected with optical telescopes using visible light can be deceiving.Infrared sensors, similar to the cameras on NEOWISE, are a powerful tool for discovering, cataloging and understanding the asteroid population. Some of the objects about which NEOWISE will be collecting data could become candidates for the agency's announced asteroid initiative.NASA's initiative will be the first mission to identify, capture and relocate an asteroid. It represents an unprecedented technological feat that will lead to new scientific discoveries and technological capabilities that will help protect our home planet. The asteroid initiative brings together the best of NASA's science, technology and human exploration efforts to achieve President Obama's goal of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025."It is important that we accumulate as much of this type of data as possible while the spacecraft remains a viable asset," said Lindley Johnson, NASA's NEOWISE program executive in Washington. "NEOWISE is an important element to enhance our ability to support the initiative."NEOWISE began as WISE. The prime mission, which was launched in December 2009, was to scan the entire celestial sky in infrared light. WISE captured more than 2.7 million images in multiple infrared wavelengths and cataloged more than 747 million objects in space, ranging from galaxies faraway to asteroids and comets much closer to Earth. NASA turned off most of WISE's electronics when it completed its primary mission in February 2011.Upon reactivation, the spacecraft was renamed NEOWISE, with the goal of discovering and characterizing asteroids and comets whose orbits approach within 28 million miles (45 million kilometers) from Earth's path around the sun.More information about NEOWISE is available online at:http://www.nasa.gov/wiseFor more information on the asteroid initiative, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/asteroidinitiativeJPL manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, built the science instrument. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colo., built the spacecraft. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/atmosphere-checked-one-mars-year-before-a-landing

Atmosphere Checked, One Mars Year Before a Landing

In preparation for NASA's next rover landing on the Red Planet, one Mars year away, an instrument studying the Martian atmosphere from orbit has begun a campaign.

PASADENA, Calif. -- What will the Martian atmosphere be like when the next Mars rover descends through it for landing in August of 2012?An instrument studying the Martian atmosphere from orbit has begun a four-week campaign to characterize daily atmosphere changes, one Mars year before the arrival of the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity. A Mars year equals 687 Earth days.The planet's thin atmosphere of carbon dioxide is highly repeatable from year to year at the same time of day and seasonal date during northern spring and summer on Mars.The Mars Climate Sounder instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter maps the distribution of temperature, dust, and water ice in the atmosphere. Temperature variations with height indicate how fast air density changes and thus the rates at which the incoming spacecraft slows down and heats up during its descent."It is currently one Mars year before the Mars Science Laboratory arrival season," said atmospheric scientist David Kass of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "This campaign will provide a set of observations to support the Mars Science Laboratory engineering team and Mars atmospheric modelers. The information will constrain the expected climate at their landing season. It will also help define the range of possible weather conditions on landing day."During the four years the Mars Climate Sounder has been studying the Martian atmosphere, its observations have seen conditions only at about three in the afternoon and three in the morning. For the new campaign, the instrument team is inaugurating a new observation mode, looking to both sides as well as forward. This provides views of the atmosphere earlier and later in the day by more than an hour, covering the range of possible times of day that the rover will pass through the atmosphere before landing.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, provided the Mars Climate Sounder instrument and manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Science Laboratory projects for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. For more about NASA's Mars exploration program, seehttp://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/rosettas-target-comet-is-becoming-active

Rosetta's Target Comet is Becoming Active

The target of ESA's Rosetta mission has started to reveal its true personality as a comet, its dusty veil clearly developing over the past six weeks.

The target of ESA's Rosetta mission has started to reveal its true personality as a comet, its dusty veil clearly developing over the past six weeks.A new sequence of images of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken between March 24 and May 4, as the gap between craft and comet closed from around 3.1 million miles (5 million kilometers) to 1.2 million miles (2 million kilometers). By the end of the sequence, the comet's coma extends about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) into space. By comparison, the nucleus is roughly only 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) across, and cannot yet be 'resolved.'Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko's coma has developed as a result of the comet moving progressively closer to the sun along its 6.5-year orbit. Even though it is still more than 373 million miles (600 million kilometers) from the sun - four times the distance between Earth and sun - its surface has already started to warm, causing its surface ices to sublimate and gas to escape from its rock-ice nucleus.The escaping gas also carries a cloud of tiny dust particles out into space, which slowly expands to create the coma. As the comet continues to move closer to the sun, the warming continues and activity rises, and pressure from the solar wind will eventually cause some of the material to stream out into a long tail.The Optical, Spectrocopic and Infrared Remote Imaging System (OSIRIS), and the spacecraft's dedicated navigation cameras, have been regularly acquiring images to help determine Rosetta's exact trajectory relative to the comet. Using this information, the spacecraft has already started a series of maneuvers that will slowly bring it in line with the comet before making its rendezvous in the first week of August. Detailed scientific observations will then help to find the best location on the comet for the spacecraft's Philae lander to descend to the surface in November.Comets are time capsules containing primitive material left over from the epoch when the sun and its planets formed. By studying the gas, dust and structure of the nucleus and organic materials associated with the comet, via both remote and in-situ observations, the Rosetta mission should become a key to unlocking the history and evolution of our solar system, as well as answering questions regarding the origin of Earth's water and perhaps even life. Rosetta will be the first mission in history to rendezvous with a comet, escort it as it orbits the sun, and deploy a lander.ESA member states and NASA contributed to the Rosetta mission. Airbus Defense and Space built the Rosetta spacecraft. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, manages the U.S. contribution of the Rosetta mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.For information on the U.S. instruments on Rosetta, visit:http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.govMore information about Rosetta, visit:http://www.esa.int/rosetta

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nustar-spacecraft-arrives-in-california

NuSTAR Spacecraft Arrives in California

NASA's NuSTAR mission has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California, where it will be mated to its Pegasus rocket.

NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, mission arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California this morning after a cross-country trip by truck from the Orbital Sciences Corporation's manufacturing plant in Dulles, Va. The mission is scheduled to launch from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean on March 14.Once the observatory is offloaded at Vandenberg, it will be moved into a processing hangar, joining the Pegasus XL rocket that is set to carry it to space. Over the weekend, technicians will remove its shipping container so that checkout and other processing activities can begin next week. Once the observatory is integrated with the rocket in mid-February, technicians will encapsulate it in the vehicle fairing, which is also scheduled to arrive at Vandenberg today.After processing is completed, the rocket and spacecraft will be flown on Orbital's L-1011 carrier aircraft to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at Kwajalein Atoll for launch in March.NuSTAR is a small-explorer mission managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation. Its instrument was built by a consortium including the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena; JPL; Columbia University, New York, N.Y.; NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; the Danish Technical University in Denmark; the University of California, Berkeley; and ATK, Goleta, Calif. NuSTAR will be operated by UC Berkeley, with the Italian Space Agency providing its equatorial ground station located at Malindi, Kenya. The mission's outreach program is based at Sonoma State University, Calif. NASA's Explorer Program is managed by Goddard. JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA.For more information, visithttp://www.nasa.gov/nustarandhttp://www.nustar.caltech.edu/.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-rover-teams-dub-sites-in-memory-of-bruce-murray

Mars Rover Teams Dub Sites in Memory of Bruce Murray

Features on Mars are now called "Murray Ridge" and "Murray Buttes," in honor of influential planetary scientist Bruce Murray (1931-2013).

Features on Mars important to the missions of NASA's two active Mars rovers are now called "Murray Ridge" and "Murray Buttes," in honor of influential planetary scientist Bruce Murray (1931-2013).The rover Opportunity, which has been roaming Mars for nearly a decade, is currently climbing Murray Ridge, part of an uplifted crater rim. NASA's newer rover, Curiosity, is headed toward Murray Buttes as the entryway to that mission's main destination."Bruce Murray contributed both scientific insight and leadership that laid the groundwork for interplanetary missions such as robotic missions to Mars, including the Mars rovers, part of America's inspirational accomplishments. It is fitting that the rover teams have chosen his name for significant landmarks on their expeditions," said NASA Mars Exploration Program Manager Fuk Li, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.Murray, a California Institute of Technology planetary geologist, worked on science teams of NASA's earliest missions to Mars in the 1960s and '70s. He was the director of JPL from 1976 to 1982, then returned to teaching and research at Caltech. He co-founded the Planetary Society in 1980 and vigorously promoted public support for planetary exploration missions. He died on Aug. 29, 2013.NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, which has been working on Mars since 2004, has been investigating sites on the western rim of a 14-mile-wide (22-kilometer-wide) crater, Endeavour, for the past two years. The feature, informally named Murray Ridge, is an uplifted portion of the rim, a spine rising southward from "Solander Point" to an elevation about 130 feet (40 meters) above the surrounding plain."Murray Ridge is the highest hill we've ever tried to climb with Opportunity," said the mission's principal investigator, Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. The ridge has outcrops with clay minerals detected from orbit. It also provides a favorable slope for Martian winter sunshine to hit the rover's solar panels, an advantage for keeping Opportunity mobile through the winter."Bruce Murray is best known for having been the director of JPL, and JPL is where our rovers were built," Squyres said. "He led JPL during a time when the planetary exploration budget was under pressure and the future for planetary missions was not clear. His leadership brought us through that period with a strong exploration program. He was also a towering figure in Mars research. His papers are still cited abundantly today."The Curiosity rover is driving from a flatter area where it worked for several months after landing in 2012 to the slopes of a mountain 3 miles (5 kilometers) high, Mount Sharp. Murray Buttes, at the base of the mountain, are a cluster of small, steep-sided knobs, up to about the size of a football field and the height of a goal post. They sit in a gap in a band of dark sand dunes that lie at the foot of the mountain. Deep sand could present a hazard for driving, so this break in the dunes is the access path to the mountain."We'll be going right by these buttes when we shoot the gap in the dunes," said Curiosity science-team member Ken Herkenhoff, of the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Center, Flagstaff, Ariz. "It will be a visually intriguing area for both the science team and the public. I think it will look like a miniature version of Monument Valley in Utah."Blowing sand from the dunes may scour dust off the buttes, exposing layers of rock for observation by the rover.Herkenhoff, who was a graduate student of Murray's in the 1980s, said, "Bruce Murray was a sedimentologist, so the sedimentary rocks we expect to see at Murray Buttes would have been especially interesting for him. He would have loved this."Curiosity's science team plans for Murray Buttes to serve as a corridor from which to launch the rover's climb onto Mount Sharp.JPL, a division of Caltech, manages the Opportunity and Curiosity missions for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.For more information about Opportunity, visithttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl,http://www.nasa.gov/roversandhttp://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov. For more information about Curiosity, visithttp://www.nasa.gov/mslandhttp://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-mars-helicopter-testing-enters-final-phase

NASA's Mars Helicopter Testing Enters Final Phase

The Mars Helicopter - a small, autonomous aircraft that will demonstrate the viability of heavier-than-air vehicles on Mars - has passed several key tests with flying colors.

NASA's Mars Helicopter flight demonstration project has passed a number of key tests with flying colors. In 2021, the small, autonomous helicopter will be the first vehicle in history to attempt to establish the viability of heavier-than-air vehicles flying on another planet."Nobody's built a Mars Helicopter before, so we are continuously entering new territory," said MiMi Aung, project manager for the Mars Helicopter at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "Our flight model - the actual vehicle that will travel to Mars - has recently passed several important tests."The laws of physics may say it's near impossible to fly on Mars, but actually flying a heavier-than-air vehicle on the Red Planet is much harder than that. NASA's Mars 2020 mission will deliver a technology demonstration that will put the idea to the test -- a helicopter that will perform controlled flight on Mars.Back in January 2019 the team operated the flight model in a simulatedMartian environment. Then the helicopter was moved to Lockheed Martin Space in Denver for compatibility testing with the Mars Helicopter Delivery System, which will hold the 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) spacecraft against the belly of the Mars 2020 rover during launch and interplanetary cruise before deploying it onto the surface of Mars after landing.As a technology demonstrator, the Mars Helicopter carries no science instruments. Its purpose is to confirm that powered flight in the tenuous Martian atmosphere (which has 1% the density of Earth's) is possible and that it can be controlled from Earth over large interplanetary distances. But the helicopter also carries a camera capable of providing high-resolution color images to further demonstrate the vehicle's potential for documenting the Red Planet.Future Mars missions could enlist second-generation helicopters to add an aerial dimension to their explorations. They could investigate previously unvisited or difficult-to-reach destinations such as cliffs, caves and deep craters, act as scouts for human crews or carry small payloads from one location to another. But before any of that happens, a test vehicle has to prove it is possible.In Denver, the Mars Helicopter and its delivery system were checked to make sure that the electrical connections and mechanisms that linked the flight vehicle with its cradle fit snuggly. Then, while still mated, the duo endured the sorts of vibrations they will experience during launch and in-flight operations. The thermal vacuum portion of the testing introduced them to the kinds of extreme temperatures (down to -200 degrees Fahrenheit, or -129 degrees Celsius) that they will encounter in space and on Mars and that could cause components to malfunction or fail.The Mars Helicopter returned to JPL on May 11, 2019, for further testing and finishing touches. Among the highlights: A new solar panel that will power the helicopter has been installed, and the vehicle's rotor blades have been spun up to ensure that the more than 1,500 individual pieces of carbon fiber, flight-grade aluminum, silicon, copper, foil andaerogelcontinue to work as a cohesive unit. Of course, there's more testing to come."We expect to complete our final tests and refinements and deliver the helicopter to the High Bay 1 clean room for integration with the rover sometime this summer," said Aung, "but we will never really be done with testing the helicopter until we fly at Mars."The Mars Helicopter will launch with the Mars 2020 rover on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket in July 2020 from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. When it lands in Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021, the rover will also be the first spacecraft in the history of planetary exploration with the ability to accurately retarget its point of touchdown during the landing sequence.The 2020 rover will conduct geological assessments of its landing site on Mars, determine the habitability of the environment, search for signs of ancient Martian life and assess natural resources and hazards for future human explorers. In another first, scientists will use the instruments aboard the rover to identify and collect samples of rock and soil, encase them in sealed tubes, and leave them on the planet's surface for potential return to Earth on a future Mars mission.JPL is building and will manage operations of the Mars 2020 rover and Mars Helicopter for the NASA Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington. NASA's Launch Services Program, based at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is responsible for launch management.If you want to send your name to Mars with NASA's 2020 mission you can do so until Sept. 30, 2019. Add your name to the list and obtain a souvenir boarding pass to Mars here:https://go.nasa.gov/Mars2020PassFor more information about the mission, go to:https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/For more information about NASA's Mars missions, go to:https://www.nasa.gov/mars

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-rover-opportunity-examines-clay-clues-in-rock

Mars Rover Opportunity Examines Clay Clues in Rock

NASA's senior Mars rover, Opportunity, is driving to a new study area after a dramatic finish to 20 months on "Cape York" with examination of a rock intensely altered by water.

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's senior Mars rover, Opportunity, is driving to a new study area after a dramatic finish to 20 months on "Cape York" with examination of a rock intensely altered by water.The fractured rock, called "Esperance," provides evidence about a wet ancient environment possibly favorable for life. The mission's principal investigator, Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., said, "Esperance was so important, we committed several weeks to getting this one measurement of it, even though we knew the clock was ticking."The mission's engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., had set this week as a deadline for starting a drive toward "Solander Point," where the team plans to keep Opportunity working during its next Martian winter."What's so special about Esperance is that there was enough water not only for reactions that produced clay minerals, but also enough to flush out ions set loose by those reactions, so that Opportunity can clearly see the alteration," said Scott McLennan of the State University of New York, Stony Brook, a long-term planner for Opportunity's science team.This rock's composition is unlike any other Opportunity has investigated during nine years on Mars -- higher in aluminum and silica, lower in calcium and iron.The next destination, Solander Point, and the area Opportunity is leaving, Cape York, both are segments of the rim of Endeavour Crater, which spans 14 miles (22 kilometers) across. The planned driving route to Solander Point is about 1.4 miles (2.2 kilometers). Cape York has been Opportunity's home since the rover arrived at the western edge of Endeavour in mid-2011 after a two-year trek from a smaller crater."Based on our current solar-array dust models, we intend to reach an area of 15 degrees northerly tilt before Opportunity's sixth Martian winter," said JPL's Scott Lever, mission manager. "Solander Point gives us that tilt and may allow us to move around quite a bit for winter science observations."Northerly tilt increases output from the rover's solar panels during southern-hemisphere winter. Daily sunshine for Opportunity will reach winter minimum in February 2014. The rover needs to be on a favorable slope well before then.The first drive away from Esperance covered 81.7 feet (24.9 meters) on May 14. Three days earlier, Opportunity finished exposing a patch of the rock's interior with the rock abrasion tool. The team used a camera and spectrometer on the robotic arm to examine Esperance.The team identified Esperance while exploring a portion of Cape York where the Compact Reconnaissance Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had detected a clay mineral. Clays typically form in wet environments that are not harshly acidic. For years, Opportunity had been finding evidence for ancient wet environments that were very acidic. The CRISM findings prompted the rover team to investigate the area where clay had been detected from orbit. There, they found an outcrop called "Whitewater Lake," containing a small amount of clay from alteration by exposure to water."There appears to have been extensive, but weak, alteration of Whitewater Lake, but intense alteration of Esperance along fractures that provided conduits for fluid flow," Squyres said. "Water that moved through fractures during this rock's history would have provided more favorable conditions for biology than any other wet environment recorded in rocks Opportunity has seen."NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project launched Opportunity to Mars on July 7, 2003, about a month after its twin rover, Spirit. Both were sent for three-month prime missions to study the history of wet environments on ancient Mars and continued working in extended missions. Spirit ceased operations in 2010.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. For more about Opportunity, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/roversandhttp://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov. You can follow the project on Twitter and on Facebook at:http://twitter.com/MarsRoversandhttp://www.facebook.com/mars.rovers.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-sets-grail-launch-coverage-events

NASA Sets GRAIL Launch Coverage Events

NASA's GRAIL spacecraft is set to launch to the moon aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket on Sept. 8, 2011, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's GRAIL spacecraft is set to launch to the moon aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket on Sept. 8, 2011, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. There are two instantaneous (one-second) launch windows at 8:37:06 a.m. and 9:16:12 a.m. EDT (5:37:06 a.m. and 6:16:12 a.m. EDT). The launch period extends through Oct. 19. The launch times occur approximately 4 minutes earlier each day.GRAIL's primary science objectives are to determine the structure of the lunar interior, from crust to core, and to advance understanding of the thermal evolution of the moon.GRAIL Prelaunch News ConferenceA prelaunch news conference will be held at NASA Kennedy Space Center's Press Site on Sept. 6, at 1 p.m. EDT (10 a.m. PDT). Participating in the briefing will be:Ed Weiler, associate administrator, Science Mission DirectorateNASA Headquarters, WashingtonTim Dunn, NASA launch directorNASA's Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Fla.Vernon Thorp, program manager, NASA MissionsUnited Launch Alliance, DenverDavid Lehman, GRAIL project managerJet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CalifJohn Henk, GRAIL program managerLockheed Martin Space Systems, DenverJoel Tumbiolo, launch weather officer45th Weather Squadron, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.GRAIL Mission Science BriefingA GRAIL mission science briefing will be held at Kennedy's Press Site on Sept. 7 at 10 a.m. EDT (7 a.m. PDT). Participating in the briefing will be:Robert Fogel, GRAIL program scientistNASA Headquarters, WashingtonMaria Zuber, GRAIL principal investigatorMassachusetts Institute of Technology, CambridgeSami Asmar, GRAIL deputy project scientistJet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.Leesa Hubbard, teacher in residenceSally Ride Science, San DiegoA post-launch news conference will be held at Kennedy's Press Site at a time to be determined after launch.NASA Television CoverageNASA Television will carry the GRAIL prelaunch news conference beginning at 1 p.m. EDT (10 a.m. PDT) on Sept. 6 and the GRAIL mission science briefing on Sept. 7 at 10 a.m. EDT (7 a.m. PDT).On Sept. 8, NASA Television coverage of the launch will begin at 6 a.m. EDT (3 a.m. PDT) and conclude after spacecraft separation from the Delta II has occurred about one hour after launch. Live launch coverage will be carried on all NASA Television channels and on the agency's website.A post-launch news conference will be held at Kennedy's Press Site at a time to be determined after launch.For NASA Television downlink information, schedule information and streaming video, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.Launch will also be available on local amateur VHF radio frequency 146.940 MHz heard within Brevard County.NASA Web prelaunch and launch coverageExtensive prelaunch and launch day coverage of the liftoff of the GRAIL spacecraft aboard the Delta II rocket will be available on NASA's home page on the Internet at:http://www.nasa.gov.A prelaunch webcast for the GRAIL mission will be streamed on the Web on Sept. 7, at noon. Live countdown coverage through NASA's Launch Blog begins at 6:30 a.m. EDT (3:30 a.m. PDT) on Sept. 8. Coverage features live updates as countdown milestones occur, as well as streaming video clips highlighting launch preparations and liftoff.To view the webcast and the blog or to learn more about the GRAIL mission, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/grailorhttp://grail.nasa.gov.The news conferences and launch coverage will be streamed live, with a chat available, at:http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2.TwitterThe NASA News Twitter feed will be updated throughout the launch countdown. To access the NASA News Twitter feed, visit:http://www.twitter.com/nasa.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the GRAIL mission for the principal investigator, Maria Zuber, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. The GRAIL mission is part of the New Frontiers Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. Launch management for the mission is the responsibility of NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-psyche-mission-moves-forward-passing-key-milestone

NASA’s Psyche Mission Moves Forward, Passing Key Milestone

Now just a year and a half from launch, the mission to explore a metal-rich asteroid will soon begin assembling and testing the spacecraft.

NASA’s Psyche mission has passed a critical milestone that moves it a step closer to launch. After an intense review of the mission’s progress in building its science instruments and engineering systems, Psyche won clearance to progress into what NASA calls Phase D of its life cycle – the final phase of operations prior to its scheduled launch in August 2022.Until now, the mission has focused on planning, designing, and building the body of the spacecraft, its solar-electric propulsion system, the three science instruments, electronics, the power subsystem, and the like. The successful review of those elements means the mission can now begin delivering components to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission and will test, assemble, and integrate each piece.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER“It’s really the final phase, when all of the puzzle pieces are coming together and we’re getting on the rocket. This is the most intense part of everything that happens on the ground,” said Arizona State University’s Lindy Elkins-Tanton, who as principal investigator for Psyche leads the mission.Psyche’s target is an intriguing,metal-rich asteroidof the same name, which orbits the Sun in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists think that, unlike rocky or icy asteroids, Psyche is largely iron and nickel and could be the heart of an early planet that lost its outer layers. Exploring the asteroid Psyche (about 140 miles, or 226 kilometers, wide) could lend valuable insight into how Earth and other planets formed.Scientists don’t yet have images of the asteroid Psyche; this interactive version is based on modeling. To see how it compares to other asteroids, zoom in and give it a spin. View the full interactive experience atEyes on the Solar System.The Psyche spacecraft will use a magnetometer to detect a potential magnetic field; if the asteroid has one, it’s a strong indicator that it once was the core of an early planet. A multispectral imager will capture images of the surface, as well as gather information about the asteroid’s composition and topography.Spectrometerswill analyze the neutrons and gamma rays coming from the surface to reveal the elements that make up the object.The main structure of the spacecraft, called the Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) Chassis, was designed and built by Maxar Technologies and is nearly complete. The Maxar team in Palo Alto, California, is preparing to ship it to JPL’s main clean room in March, when assembly, test, and launch operations begin.Each instrument will then undergo further testing. That includes a laser technology demonstration called Deep Space Optical Communications, led by JPL, which uses a super-efficient method of transmitting data with photons, or fundamental particles of visible light. Also undergoing testing will be the thermal, telecommunications, propulsion, power, avionics, and other engineering subsystems, along with the flight computer.“The project has made tremendous progress, particularly given the world around us and COVID-19 and dealing with the constraints that imposes,” said JPL’s Henry Stone, the Psyche project manager. “We’re in very good shape. We’re on track and have a plan to go forward to make launch.”Although engineers and technicians have had to deal with shutdowns forced by the pandemic and to adhere to additional safety protocols for those doing hands-on work on the spacecraft, the project remains on schedule.“The fact that we can still make this happen and we’re overcoming our challenges feels near-miraculous,” Elkins-Tanton said. “And it’s also an incredible gift to keep us all focused and moving forward in a difficult time. So reaching this milestone has special meaning – not just for this project that we’ve been working on for a decade, but also because of what’s been happening more recently in all of our lives.”By spring of 2022, the spacecraft will be fully assembled and ready to ship to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where it will launch in August 2022. Psyche will fly by Mars for a gravity assist in May 2023. And in early 2026, it will slip into orbit around the asteroid, where it will spend 21 months gathering data for analysis.More About the MissionASU leads the mission. JPL in Southern California is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Maxar is providing a high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis.For more information about NASA’s Psyche mission go to:http://www.nasa.gov/psychehttps://psyche.asu.edu/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/oscillation-rules-as-the-pacific-cools

Oscillation Rules as the Pacific Cools

The latest image of sea-surface height measurements from the U.S./French Jason-1 oceanography satellite shows the Pacific Ocean remains locked in a strong, cool phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a large, long-lived pattern of climate variability in the Pacific associated with a general cooling of Pacific waters.

PASADENA, Calif. -- The latest image of sea-surface height measurements from the U.S./French Jason-1 oceanography satellite shows the Pacific Ocean remains locked in a strong, cool phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a large, long-lived pattern of climate variability in the Pacific associated with a general cooling of Pacific waters. The image also confirms that El Niño and La Niña remain absent from the tropical Pacific.The new image is available online at:http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/20081209.html.The image is based on the average of 10 days of data centered on Nov. 15, 2008, compared to the long-term average of observations from 1993 through 2008. In the image, places where the Pacific sea-surface height is higher (warmer) than normal are yellow and red, and places where the sea surface is lower (cooler) than normal are blue and purple. Green shows where conditions are near normal. Sea-surface height is an indicator of the heat content of the upper ocean.The Pacific Decadal Oscillation is a long-term fluctuation of the Pacific Ocean that waxes and wanes between cool and warm phases approximately every five to 20 years. In the present cool phase, higher-than-normal sea-surface heights caused by warm water form a horseshoe pattern that connects the north, west and southern Pacific. This is in contrast to a cool wedge of lower-than-normal sea-surface heights spreading from the Americas into the eastern equatorial Pacific. During most of the 1980s and 1990s, the Pacific was locked in the oscillation's warm phase, during which these warm and cool regions are reversed. For an explanation of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and its present state, see:http://jisao.washington.edu/pdo/andhttp://www.esr.org/pdo_index.html.Sea-surface temperature satellite data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration mirror Jason sea-surface height measurements, clearly showing a cool Pacific Decadal Oscillation pattern, as seen at:http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/map/images/sst/sst.anom.gif."This multi-year Pacific Decadal Oscillation 'cool' trend can cause La Niña-like impacts around the Pacific basin," said Bill Patzert, an oceanographer and climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The present cool phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation will have significant implications for shifts in marine ecosystems, and for land temperature and rainfall patterns around the Pacific basin."According to Nathan Mantua of the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington, Seattle, whose research contributed to the early understanding of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, "Even with the strong La Niña event fading in the tropics last spring, the North Pacific's sea surface temperature anomaly pattern has remained strongly negative since last fall. This cool phase will likely persist this winter and, perhaps, beyond. Historically, this situation has been associated with favorable ocean conditions for the return of U.S. west coast Coho and Chinook salmon, but it translates to low odds for abundant winter/spring precipitation in the southwest (including Southern California)."Jason's follow-on mission, the Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2, was successfully launched this past June and will extend to two decades the continuous data record of sea surface heights begun by Topex/Poseidon in 1992. The new mission has produced excellent data, which have recently been certified for operational use. Fully calibrated and validated data for science use will be released next spring.JPL manages the U.S. portion of the Jason-1 mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.For more information on NASA's ocean surface topography missions, visithttp://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/. To view the latest Jason-1 data, visithttp://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/science/jason1-quick-look/.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-and-earth-activities-aim-to-get-spirit-rolling-again

Mars and Earth Activities Aim to Get Spirit Rolling Again

NASA's rover project team is using Spirit and other spacecraft at Mars to find a way for the rover to get dislodged from soft Martian ground.

Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status ReportPASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's rover project team is using the Spirit rover and other spacecraft at Mars to begin developing the best maneuvers for extracting Spirit from the soft Martian ground where it has become embedded.A diagnostic test on May 16 provided favorable indications about Spirit's left middle wheel. The possibility of the wheel being jammed was one factor in the rover team's May 7 decision to temporarily suspend driving Spirit after that wheel stalled and other wheels had dug themselves about hub-deep into the soil. The test over the weekend showed electrical resistance in the left middle wheel is within the expected range for a motor that has not failed."This is not a full exoneration of the wheel, but it is encouraging," said John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., project manager for Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity. "We're taking incremental steps. Next, we'll command that wheel to rotate a degree or two. The other wheels will be kept motionless, so this is not expected to alter the position of the vehicle."Another reason to suspend driving is the possibility that the wheels' digging into the soil may have lowered the body of the rover enough for its belly pan to be in contact with a small mound of rocks. The rover team is using Opportunity to test a procedure for possible use by Spirit: looking underneath the rover with the microscopic imager camera that is mounted on the end of the rover's arm. This might be a way to see whether Spirit is, in fact, touching the rocks beneath it.NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter is also aiding in the Spirit recovery plan. As a result of winds blowing dust off Spirit's solar panel four times in the past month, Spirit now has enough power to add an extra communication session each day. The Odyssey project has made the orbiter available for receiving extra transmissions from Spirit. The transmissions include imaging data from Spirit's examinations of soil properties and ground geometry.Rover team members are using that data and other information to construct a simulation of Spirit's situation in a rover testing facility at JPL. The team is testing different materials to use as soil that will mimic the physical properties of the Martian soil where Spirit is embedded. Later, the team will test maneuvers to get the rover free. Weeks of testing are anticipated before any attempt to move Spirit.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-neowise-completes-scan-for-asteroids-and-comets

NASA's NEOWISE Completes Scan for Asteroids and Comets

NASA's NEOWISE mission has completed its survey of small bodies, asteroids and comets, in our solar system.

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's NEOWISE mission has completed its survey of small bodies, asteroids and comets, in our solar system. The mission's discoveries of previously unknown objects include 20 comets, more than 33,000 asteroids in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, and 134 near-Earth objects (NEOs). The NEOs are asteroids and comets with orbits that come within 45 million kilometers (28 million miles) of Earth's path around the sun.NEOWISE is an enhancement of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, mission that launched in December 2009. WISE scanned the entire celestial sky in infrared light about 1.5 times. It captured more than 2.7 million images of objects in space, ranging from faraway galaxies to asteroids and comets close to Earth.In early October 2010, after completing its prime science mission, the spacecraft ran out of the frozen coolant that keeps its instrumentation cold. However, two of its four infrared cameras remained operational. These two channels were still useful for asteroid hunting, so NASA extended the NEOWISE portion of the WISE mission by four months, with the primary purpose of hunting for more asteroids and comets, and to finish one complete scan of the main asteroid belt."Even just one year of observations from the NEOWISE project has significantly increased our catalog of data on NEOs and the other small bodies of the solar systems," said Lindley Johnson, NASA's program executive for the NEO Observation Program.Now that NEOWISE has successfully completed a full sweep of the main asteroid belt, the WISE spacecraft will go into hibernation mode and remain in polar orbit around Earth, where it could be called back into service in the future.In addition to discovering new asteroids and comets, NEOWISE also confirmed the presence of objects in the main belt that had already been detected. In just one year, it observed about 153,000 rocky bodies out of approximately 500,000 known objects. Those include the 33,000 that NEOWISE discovered.NEOWISE also observed known objects closer and farther to us than the main belt, including roughly 2,000 asteroids that orbit along with Jupiter, hundreds of NEOs and more than 100 comets.These observations will be key to determining the objects' sizes and compositions. Visible-light data alone reveal how much sunlight reflects off an asteroid, whereas infrared data is much more directly related to the object's size. By combining visible and infrared measurements, astronomers also can learn about the compositions of the rocky bodies -- for example, whether they are solid or crumbly. The findings will lead to a much-improved picture of the various asteroid populations.NEOWISE took longer to survey the whole asteroid belt than WISE took to scan the entire sky because most of the asteroids are moving in the same direction around the sun as the spacecraft moves while it orbits Earth. The spacecraft field of view had to catch up to, and lap, the movement of the asteroids in order to see them all."You can think of Earth and the asteroids as racehorses moving along in a track," said Amy Mainzer, the principal investigator of NEOWISE at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We're moving along together around the sun, but the main belt asteroids are like horses on the outer part of the track. They take longer to orbit than us, so we eventually lap them."NEOWISE data on the asteroid and comet orbits are catalogued at the NASA-funded International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, a clearinghouse for information about all solar system bodies at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass. The science team is analyzing the infrared observations now and will publish new findings in the coming months.When combined with WISE observations, NEOWISE data will aid in the discovery of the closest dim stars, called brown dwarfs. These observations have the potential to reveal a brown dwarf even closer to us than our closest known star, Proxima Centauri, if such an object does exist. Likewise, if there is a hidden gas-giant planet in the outer reaches of our solar system, data from WISE and NEOWISE could detect it.The first batch of observations from the WISE mission will be available to the public and astronomical community in April."WISE has unearthed a mother lode of amazing sources, and we're having a great time figuring out their nature," said Edward (Ned) Wright, the principal investigator of WISE at UCLA.JPL manages WISE for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington. The mission was competitively selected under NASA's Explorers Program, which NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages. The Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, built the science instrument, and Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colo., built the spacecraft. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. JPL manages NEOWISE for NASA's Planetary Sciences Division. The mission's data processing also takes place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center.More information is online athttp://www.nasa.gov/wise,http://wise.astro.ucla.eduandhttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/wise.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-mars-insight-flexes-its-arm

NASA's Mars InSight Flexes Its Arm

Now unstowed, the spacecraft's robotic arm will point a camera located on its elbow and take images of the surroundings.

New images from NASA's Mars InSight lander show its robotic arm is ready to do some lifting.With a reach of nearly 6 feet (2 meters), the arm will be used to pick up science instruments from the lander's deck, gently setting them on the Martian surface at Elysium Planitia, the lava plain where InSight touched down on Nov. 26.But first, the arm will use its Instrument Deployment Camera, located on its elbow, to take photos of the terrain in front of the lander. These images will help mission team members determine where to set InSight's seismometer and heat flow probe - the only instruments ever to be robotically placed on the surface of another planet."Today we can see the first glimpses of our workspace," said Bruce Banerdt, the mission's principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "By early next week, we'll be imaging it in finer detail and creating a full mosaic."Another camera, called the Instrument Context Camera, is located under the lander's deck. It will also offer views of the workspace, though the view won't be as pretty."We had a protective cover on the Instrument Context Camera, but somehow dust still managed to get onto the lens," said Tom Hoffman of JPL, InSight's project manager. "While this is unfortunate, it will not affect the role of the camera, which is to take images of the area in front of the lander where our instruments will eventually be placed."Placement is critical, and the team is proceeding with caution. Two to three months could go by before the instruments have been situated and calibrated.Over the past week and a half, mission engineers have been testing those instruments and spacecraft systems, ensuring they're in working order. A couple instruments are even recording data: a drop in air pressure, possibly caused by a passing dust devil, was detected by the pressure sensor. This, along with a magnetometer and a set of wind and temperature sensors, are part of a package called the Auxiliary Payload Sensor Subsystem, which will collect meteorological data.More images from InSight's arm were scheduled to come down this past weekend. However, imaging was momentarily interrupted, resuming the following day. During the first few weeks in its new home, InSight has been instructed to be extra careful, so anything unexpected will trigger what's called a fault. Considered routine, it causes the spacecraft to stop what it is doing and ask for help from operators on the ground."We did extensive testing on Earth. But we know that everything is a little different for the lander on Mars, so faults are not unusual," Hoffman said. "They can delay operations, but we're not in a rush. We want to be sure that each operation that we perform on Mars is safe, so we set our safety monitors to be fairly sensitive initially."Spacecraft engineers had already factored extra time into their estimates for instrument deployment to account for likely delays caused by faults. The mission's primary mission is scheduled for two Earth years, or one Mars year - plenty of time to gather data from the Red Planet's surface.About InSightJPL manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission.A number of European partners, including France's Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are supporting the InSight mission. CNES and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument, with significant contributions from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH) in Switzerland, Imperial College and Oxford University in the United Kingdom, and JPL. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument, with significant contributions from the Space Research Center (CBK) of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland. Spain's Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) supplied the wind sensors.For more information about InSight, visit:https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/pebbly-rocks-testify-to-old-streambed-on-mars

Pebbly Rocks Testify to Old Streambed on Mars

A new report tells how rocks examined by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity reveal details of how deep and how fast water once flowed in an ancient Martian stream.

PASADENA, Calif. - Detailed analysis and review have borne out researchers' initial interpretation of pebble-containing slabs that NASA's Mars rover Curiosity investigated last year: They are part of an ancient streambed.The rocks are the first ever found on Mars that contain streambed gravels. The sizes and shapes of the gravels embedded in these conglomerate rocks -- from the size of sand particles to the size of golf balls -- enabled researchers to calculate the depth and speed of the water that once flowed at this location."We completed more rigorous quantification of the outcrops to characterize the size distribution and roundness of the pebbles and sand that make up these conglomerates," said Rebecca Williams of the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Ariz., lead author of a report about them in the journal Science this week. "We ended up with a calculation in the same range as our initial estimate last fall. At a minimum, the stream was flowing at a speed equivalent to a walking pace -- a meter, or three feet, per second -- and it was ankle-deep to hip-deep."Three pavement-like rocks examined with the telephoto capability of Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) during the rover's first 40 days on Mars are the basis for the new report. One, "Goulburn," is immediately adjacent to the rover's "Bradbury Landing" touchdown site. The other two, "Link" and "Hottah," are about 165 and 330 feet (50 and 100 meters) to the southeast. Researchers also used the rover's laser-shooting Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument to investigate the Link rock."These conglomerates look amazingly like streambed deposits on Earth," Williams said. "Most people are familiar with rounded river pebbles. Maybe you've picked up a smoothed, round rock to skip across the water. Seeing something so familiar on another world is exciting and also gratifying."The larger pebbles are not distributed evenly in the conglomerate rocks. In Hottah, researchers detected alternating pebble-rich layers and sand layers. This is common in streambed deposits on Earth and provides additional evidence for stream flow on Mars. In addition, many of the pebbles are touching each other, a sign that they rolled along the bed of a stream."Our analysis of the amount of rounding of the pebbles provided further information," said Sanjeev Gupta of Imperial College, London, a co-author of the new report. "The rounding indicates sustained flow. It occurs as pebbles hit each other multiple times. This wasn't a one-off flow. It was sustained, certainly more than weeks or months, though we can't say exactly how long."The stream carried the gravels at least a few miles, or kilometers, the researchers estimated.The atmosphere of modern Mars is too thin to make a sustained stream flow of water possible, though the planet holds large quantities of water ice. Several types of evidence have indicated that ancient Mars had diverse environments with liquid water. However, none but these rocks found by Curiosity could provide the type of stream flow information published this week. Curiosity's images of conglomerate rocks indicate that atmospheric conditions at Gale Crater once enabled the flow of liquid water on the Martian surface.During a two-year prime mission, researchers are using Curiosity's 10 science instruments to assess the environmental history in Gale Crater on Mars, where the rover has found evidence of ancient environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.More information about Curiosity is online at:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl,http://www.nasa.gov/mslandhttp://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/.You can follow the mission on Facebook at:http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosityand on Twitter athttp://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/seasat-nscat-detect-changes-in-greenland-ice-sheet

Seasat, NSCAT Detect Changes in Greenland Ice Sheet

Scientists comparing data collected by the Seasat Scatterometer (SASS) with images acquired by the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) have detected significant changes in the characteristics and extent of dry snow cover at Greenland's highest elevations during the 18-year gap between both missions.

Scientists comparing data collected by the Seasat Scatterometer (SASS) with images acquired by the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) have detected significant changes in the characteristics and extent of dry snow cover at Greenland's highest elevations during the 18-year gap between both missions.Dr. Mark Drinkwater of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, and co-author Dr. David Long of Bringham Young University, Provo, Utah, will be presenting their findings this week at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, CA. The special session on Greenland will be held on Monday, Dec. 8, at 10:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time."The area impacted by recent summer melting on Greenland is significantly larger than that previously observed. It appears that climate changes over the last two decades have influenced patterns of snow accumulation and melting on Greenland. A persistent increase in the melting of the ice sheet would ultimately affect sea levels," Drinkwater said. "The extent of the polar ice sheets helps preserve the global energy balance as the ice sheets reflect incoming solar energy and, thus, help regulate Earth's temperature."NASA's Seasat mission was launched in 1978 and carried five instruments to measure wind speed and direction, sea-surface temperature, the amount of water in the atmosphere, ocean waves and the polar ice fields. Seasat operated for 100 days before an electrical short circuit ended the mission.The NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT), designed to study wind speed and direction over the oceans, was launched in August 1996 on Japan's Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS). However, the satellite suffered a fatal solar array problem that prematurely ended the mission on June 30, 1997.Despite the short lifetimes of both missions, the scatterometers have provided scientists with valuable information about winds over the ocean. Data from the missions have also been used to study changes in the polar ice sheets."Although originally designed to measure ocean winds, spaceborne microwave radar scatterometers such as NSCAT can be used effectively to study changes in large polar ice sheets. Our results show a clear reduction in the location and extent of the dry-snow zone as a result of increased melting since 1978. The largest changes occur at the boundary of the dry snow zone in the southwestern part of the ice sheet. The dry-snow zone is the high altitude portion of the Greenland ice cap, which normally experiences no summer melting," Drinkwater said. "These changes are consistent with a 10-year warming trend and an increase of more than 1 degree C (1.8 degrees F) between 1979 and the present day, except for the summer of 1992, when ash from the Mt. Pinatubo eruption may have temporarily helped to cool the northern hemisphere."Scientists need a long-term, consistent measurement record to help them determine the extent of melting and the impact of climate change upon the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. NASA has approved the Quick Scatterometer mission (QuikSCAT) to fill in the measurement gap caused by the loss of NSCAT. These data will help scientists continue to monitor the changes on Greenland and around the globe.The NSCAT and Seasat images are available on JPL's web site athttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, managed the Seasat and NSCAT missions for NASA's Office of Mission to Planet Earth, Washington, DC.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-mars-2020-mission-performs-first-supersonic-parachute-test

NASA's Mars 2020 Mission Performs First Supersonic Parachute Test

First flight tests of the mission's supersonic parachute have yielded dramatic video.

Landing on Mars is difficult and not always successful. Well-designed advance testing helps. An ambitious NASA Mars rover mission set to launch in 2020 will rely on a special parachute to slow the spacecraft down as it enters the Martian atmosphere at over 12,000 mph (5.4 kilometers per second). Preparations for this mission have provided, for the first time, dramatic video of the parachute opening at supersonic speed.The Mars 2020 mission will seek signs of ancient Martian life by investigating evidence in place and by caching drilled samples of Martian rocks for potential future return to Earth. The mission's parachute-testing series, the Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation Research Experiment, or ASPIRE, began with a rocket launch and upper-atmosphere flight last month from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia.› DOWNLOAD VIDEO NASA's Mars 2020 Supersonic Parachute: Test Flight #1"It is quite a ride," said Ian Clark, the test's technical lead from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "The imagery of our first parachute inflation is almost as breathtaking to behold as it is scientifically significant. For the first time, we get to see what it would look like to be in a spacecraft hurtling towards the Red Planet, unfurling its parachute."A 58-foot-tall (17.7-meter) Black Brant IX sounding rocket launched from Wallops on Oct. 4 for this evaluation of the ASPIRE payload performance. The payload is a bullet-nosed, cylindrical structure holding a supersonic parachute, the parachute's deployment mechanism, and the test's high-definition instrumentation -- including cameras -- to record data.The rocket carried the payload as high as about 32 miles (51 kilometers). Forty-two seconds later, at an altitude of 26 miles (42 kilometers) and a velocity of 1.8 times the speed of sound, the test conditions were met and the Mars parachute successfully deployed. Thirty-five minutes after launch, ASPIRE splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean about 34 miles (54 kilometers) southeast of Wallops Island."Everything went according to plan or better than planned," said Clark. "We not only proved that we could get our payload to the correct altitude and velocity conditions to best mimic a parachute deployment in the Martian atmosphere, but as an added bonus, we got to see our parachute in action as well."The parachute tested during this first flight was almost an exact copy of the parachute used to land NASA's Mars Science Laboratory successfully on the Red Planet in 2012. Future tests will evaluate the performance of a strengthened parachute that could also be used in future Mars missions. The Mars 2020 team will use data from these tests to finalize the design for its mission.The next ASPIRE test is planned for February 2018.The Mars 2020 project's parachute-testing series, ASPIRE, is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with support from NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, and NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California, for NASA's Space Science Mission Directorate. NASA's Sounding Rocket Program is based at the agency's Wallops Flight Facility. Orbital ATK provides mission planning, engineering services and field operations through the NASA Sounding Rocket Operations Contract. NASA's Heliophysics Division manages the sounding-rocket program for the agency.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/curiosity-tastes-first-sample-in-clay-bearing-unit

Curiosity Tastes First Sample in 'Clay-Bearing Unit'

This new region on Mars might reveal more about the role of water on Mount Sharp.

Scientists working with NASA's Curiosity Mars rover have been excited to explore a region called "the clay-bearing unit" since before the spacecraft launched. Now, the rover has finally tasted its first sample from this part of Mount Sharp. Curiosity drilled a piece of bedrock nicknamed "Aberlady" on Saturday, April 6 (the 2,370th Martian day, or sol, of the mission), and delivered the sample to its internal mineralogy lab on Wednesday, April 10 (Sol 2374).The rover's drill chewed easily through the rock, unlike some of the tougher targets it faced nearby on Vera Rubin Ridge. It was so soft, in fact, that the drill didn't need to use its percussive technique, which is helpful for snagging samples from harder rock. This was the mission's first sample obtained using only rotation of the drill bit."Curiosity has been on the road for nearly seven years," said Curiosity Project Manager Jim Erickson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "Finally drilling at the clay-bearing unit is a major milestone in our journey up Mount Sharp."Scientists are eager to analyze the sample for traces of clay minerals because they usually form in water. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spied a strong clay "signal" here long before Curiosity landed in 2012. Pinpointing the source of that signal could help the science team understand if a wetter Martian era shaped this layer of Mount Sharp, the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain Curiosity has been climbing.Curiosity has discovered clay minerals in mudstones all along its journey. These mudstones formed as river sediment settled within ancient lakes nearly 3.5 billion years ago. As with water elsewhere on Mars, the lakes eventually dried up.The clay beacon seen from space brought the rover here, but the region clearly has several other stories to tell. Now that Curiosity is searching this area, scientists can peer around as geological tourists, finding a landscape both ancient and new. There are several kinds of bedrock and sand, including active sand ripples that have shifted in the past year. Pebbles are scattered everywhere - are they eroding from the local bedrock? Several eye-catching landmarks, such as "Knockfarril Hill," stick out as well."Each layer of this mountain is a puzzle piece," said Curiosity Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada of JPL. "They each hold clues to a different era in Martian history. We're excited to see what this first sample tells us about the ancient environment, especially about water."The Aberlady sample will give the team a starting point for thinking about the clay-bearing unit. They plan to drill several more times over the course of the next year. That will help them understand what makes this region different from the ridge behind it and an area with a sulfate signal up higher on the mountain.More information about Curiosity is at:https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/More information about Mars is at:https://mars.nasa.gov/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-prepares-for-first-interplanetary-cubesats

NASA Prepares for First Interplanetary CubeSats

When NASA launches its next mission on the journey to Mars - a stationary lander in 2016 - the flight will include the first two CubeSats sent to deep space.

When NASA launches its next mission on the journey to Mars - a stationary lander in 2016 - the flight will include two CubeSats. This will be the first time CubeSats have flown in deep space. If this flyby demonstration is successful, the technology will provide NASA the ability to quickly transmit status information about the main spacecraft after it lands on Mars.The twin communications-relay CubeSats, being built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, constitute a technology demonstration called Mars Cube One (MarCO). CubeSats are a class of spacecraft based on a standardized small size and modular use of off-the-shelf technologies. Many have been made by university students, and dozens have been launched into Earth orbit using extra payload mass available on launches of larger spacecraft.The basic CubeSat unit is a box roughly 4 inches (10 centimeters) square. Larger CubeSats are multiples of that unit. MarCO's design is a six-unit CubeSat - about the size of a briefcase -- with a stowed size of about 14.4 inches (36.6 centimeters) by 9.5 inches (24.3 centimeters) by 4.6 inches (11.8 centimeters).MarCO will launch in March 2016 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on the same United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket as NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander. InSight is NASA's first mission devoted to understanding the interior structure of the Red Planet. MarCO will fly by Mars while InSight is landing, in September 2016."MarCO is an experimental capability that has been added to the InSight mission, but is not needed for mission success," said Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science division at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "MarCO will fly independently to Mars."During InSight's entry, descent and landing (EDL) operations on Sept. 28, 2016, the lander will transmit information in the UHF radio band to NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) flying overhead. MRO will forward EDL information to Earth using a radio frequency in the X band, but cannot simultaneously receive information over one band while transmitting on another. Confirmation of a successful landing could be received by the orbiter more than an hour before it's relayed to Earth.MarCO's softball-size radio provides both UHF (receive only) and X-band (receive and transmit) functions capable of immediately relaying information received over UHF.The two CubeSats will separate from the Atlas V booster after launch and travel along their own trajectories to the Red Planet. After release from the launch vehicle, MarCO's first challenges are to deploy two radio antennas and two solar panels. The high-gain, X-band antenna is a flat panel engineered to direct radio waves the way a parabolic dish antenna does. MarCO will be navigated to Mars independently of the InSight spacecraft, with its own course adjustments on the way.Ultimately, if the MarCO demonstration mission succeeds, it could allow for a "bring-your-own" communications relay option for use by future Mars missions in the critical few minutes between Martian atmospheric entry and touchdown.By verifying CubeSats are a viable technology for interplanetary missions, and feasible on a short development timeline, this technology demonstration could lead to many other applications to explore and study our solar system.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages MarCO, InSight and MRO for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Technology suppliers for MarCO include: Blue Canyon Technologies of Boulder, Colorado, for the attitude-control system; VACCO Industries of South El Monte, California, for the propulsion system; AstroDev of Ann Arbor, Michigan, for electronics; MMA Design LLC, also of Boulder, for solar arrays; and Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems Inc., a Terran Orbital Company in San Luis Obispo, California, for the CubeSat dispenser system.For information about MarCO, visit:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cubesat/missions/marco.phpFor information about InSight, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/insightLearn more about NASA's journey to Mars at:http://www.nasa.gov/content/journey-to-mars-overview

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/man-in-the-moon-has-graphite-whiskers

Man in the Moon has 'Graphite Whiskers'

In a new analysis of a lunar sample collected by Apollo 17, researchers have detected and dated carbon on the moon in the form of graphite.

PASADENA, Calif. -- In a new analysis of a lunar sample collected by Apollo 17, researchers have detected and dated carbon on the moon in the form of graphite -- the sooty stuff of pencil lead -- which survived from around 3.8 billion years ago, when the moon was heavily bombarded by meteorites. Up to now, scientists thought the trace amounts of carbon previously detected on the surface of the moon came from the solar wind.Some of the graphite revealed by the new study appeared in a rare rolled form known as "graphite whiskers," which scientists believe formed in the very high-temperature reactions initiated by a meteorite impact. The discovery also means that the moon potentially holds a record of the carbon input by meteors into the Earth-moon system when life was just beginning to emerge on Earth. The research is published in the July 2 issue of the journal Science."The solar system was chaotic, with countless colliding objects 3.9 billion years ago," explained lead author Andrew Steele, based at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. "Volatiles -- compounds like water and elements like carbon -- were vaporized under that heat and shock. These materials were critical to the creation of life on Earth.""Materials that fell on the early Earth fell on the moon as well, because the two bodies basically share the same gravity well," said Marc Fries, a planetary scientist who conducted the research while working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and is now based at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz. "This sample is like a pristine page from Earth's past, before plate tectonics and other forces erased the history of this ancient carbon material on Earth."While the sample from the Mare Serenitatis area came back to Earth in 1972, the research team, led by scientists at the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution for Science, used a new technique known as Raman spectroscopy on the sample. Previous techniques enabled scientists to get a sense of the composition, but this kind of spectroscopy is more sensitive and also allows scientists to create an image of the minerals. The graphite whiskers appeared to be a few micrometers in diameter and up to about 10 microns long.Scientists were surprised at the finding of graphite and graphite whiskers."It shows that modern spatially resolved techniques could be used to discover further surprises in the now 40-year-old Apollo collection," said co-author Mihaela Glamoclija, based at the Carnegie Institution.The scientists ruled out the possibility that the graphite was a result of contamination, because graphite whiskers, in particular, form under very hot conditions, between 1,830 and 6,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,273 to 3,900 Kelvin). They also ruled out the solar wind as the source, because the graphite and graphite whiskers were much larger than carbon implanted by the solar wind, and while contamination occurred throughout the sample, the graphite was restricted to a discrete blackened area of the sample."We believe that the carbon we detected either came from the object that made the impact basin, or it condensed from the carbon-rich gas that was released during impact," said co-author Francis McCubbin, of the Carnegie Institution.The research was partly funded by the NASA Astrobiology, Mars Fundamental Research, and the Lunar Advanced Science and Exploration Research programs in NASA's Planetary Division in Washington. The California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-spacecraft-detects-impact-glass-on-surface-of-mars

NASA Spacecraft Detects Impact Glass on Surface of Mars

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has detected deposits of glass within impact craters on Mars.

Fast Facts:› Glass deposits in impact craters on Mars have been detected in observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.› Impact glass could preserve evidence about whether Mars ever had life.NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has detected deposits of glass within impact craters on Mars. Though formed in the searing heat of a violent impact, such deposits might provide a delicate window into the possibility of past life on the Red Planet.During the past few years, research has shown evidence about past life has been preserved in impact glass here on Earth. A 2014 study led by scientist Peter Schultz of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, found organic molecules and plant matter entombed in glass formed by an impact that occurred millions of years ago in Argentina. Schultz suggested that similar processes might preserve signs of life on Mars, if they were present at the time of an impact.Fellow Brown researchers Kevin Cannon and Jack Mustard, building on the previous research, detail their data about Martian impact glass in a report now online in the journal Geology."The work done by Pete and others showed us that glasses are potentially important for preserving biosignatures," Cannon said. "Knowing that, we wanted to go look for them on Mars and that's what we did here. Before this paper, no one had been able to definitively detect them on the surface."Cannon and Mustard showed large glass deposits are present in several ancient, yet well-preserved, craters on Mars. Picking out the glassy deposits was no easy task. To identify minerals and rock types remotely, scientists measured the spectra of light reflected off the planet's surface. But impact glass doesn't have a particularly strong spectral signal."Glasses tend to be spectrally bland or weakly expressive, so signature from the glass tends to be overwhelmed by the chunks of rock mixed in with it," said Mustard. "But Kevin found a way to tease that signal out."In a laboratory, Cannon mixed together powders with a similar composition of Martian rocks and fired them in an oven to form glass. He then measured the spectral signal from that glass.Once Mustard had the signal from the lab glass, he used an algorithm to pick out similar signals in data from MRO's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), for which he is the deputy principal investigator.The technique pinpointed deposits in several Martian crater central peaks, the craggy mounds that often form in the center of a crater during a large impact. The fact the deposits were found on central peaks is a good indicator that they have an impact origin.Knowing that impact glass can preserve ancient signs of life -- and now knowing that such deposits exist on the Martian surface today -- opens up a potential new strategy in the search for ancient Martian life."The researchers' analysis suggests glass deposits are relatively common impact features on Mars," said Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science division at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "These areas could be targets for future exploration as our robotic scientific explorers pave the way on the journey to Mars with humans in the 2030s."One of the craters containing glass, called Hargraves, is near the Nili Fossae trough, a 400-mile-long (about 650-kilometer-long) depression that stretches across the Martian surface. The region is one of the landing site contenders for NASA's Mars 2020 rover, a mission to cache soil and rock samples for possible return to Earth.Nili Fossae trough is already of scientific interest because the crust in the region is thought to date back to when Mars was a much wetter planet. The region also is rife with what appear to be ancient hydrothermal fractures, warm vents that could have provided energy for life to thrive just beneath the surface."If you had an impact that dug in and sampled that subsurface environment, it's possible that some of it might be preserved in a glassy component," Mustard said. "That makes this a pretty compelling place to go look around, and possibly return a sample."MRO has been examining Mars with CRISM and five other instruments since 2006."This significant new detection of impact glass illustrates how we can continue to learn from the ongoing observations by this long-lived mission," said Richard Zurek, MRO project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, provided and operates CRISM. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages MRO for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the orbiter and supports its operations.For more information about CRISM, visit:http://crism.jhuapl.edu/For more information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/mrohttp://mars.nasa.gov/mro

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-wins-two-emmy-awards-for-interactive-mission-coverage

NASA Wins Two Emmy Awards for Interactive Mission Coverage

NASA-JPL's coverage of the Mars InSight landing earns one of the two wins, making this the NASA center's second Emmy.

NASA's efforts to engage a broader audience in exploration through the use of social media and online features was recognized with two Emmy Awards for interactive programming this weekend. During ceremonies held Sept. 14-15 at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences recognized NASA for its coverage of a Mars mission and the agency's first test of a spacecraft that will help bring crewed launches to the International Space Station back to U.S. soil.NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted, "Congrats to all involved and those who help tell the@NASAstory every day!"Part of the Creative Arts Emmys, the awards went out as follows:NASA and SpaceXOn Sept. 14, a team from NASA's Kennedy Space Center andSpaceXwon in the category of Outstanding Interactive Program for multimedia coverage of Demonstration Mission 1, a test flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon to the International Space Station - the first human-rated spacecraft to lift off from U.S. soil since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.Demonstration Mission 1 was made possible by NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which is paving the way for commercial transport of astronauts to the space station while the agency looks forward to deep space missions to the Moon and Mars. The nomination was the result of years of preparation for the historic launch and multiple live broadcasts from NASA and SpaceX facilities across the country during each phase of the Crew Dragon's mission to the International Space Station and its stunning return to Earth. Throughout NASA's coverage, the agency and SpaceX engaged social media users around the world and at local social media influencer gatherings at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.NASA's Jet Propulsion LaboratoryOn the second night, Sept. 15, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, won Outstanding Original Interactive Program for the agency's coverage - including news, web, education, television and social media efforts - of itsInSight(Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) mission to Mars.InSight is the first mission to study the deep interior of Mars, using an ultra-sensitive seismometer, a heat-flow probe and other instruments. InSight is managed for NASA by JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena. JPL won the 2018 Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Interactive Program for its coverage of the Cassini mission's Grand Finale at Saturn.An edited version of the two ceremonies will air on FXX Sept. 21. Selected Creative Arts Emmys will be shown as part of the live 71st Primetime Emmys broadcast on Sept. 22, which will air on Fox at 5 p.m. PDT (8 p.m. EDT).

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-prepares-its-science-fleet-for-oct-19-mars-comet-encounter

NASA Prepares its Science Fleet for Oct. 19 Mars Comet Encounter

NASA's extensive fleet of science assets, particularly those orbiting and roving Mars, have front row seats to image and study a once-in-a-lifetime comet flyby on Sunday, Oct. 19.

NASA's extensive fleet of science assets, particularly those orbiting and roving Mars, have front row seats to image and study a once-in-a-lifetime comet flyby on Sunday, Oct. 19.Comet C/2013 A1, also known as comet Siding Spring, will pass within about 87,000 miles (139,500 kilometers) of the Red Planet -- less than half the distance between Earth and our moon and less than one-tenth the distance of any known comet flyby of Earth.Siding Spring's nucleus will come closest to Mars around 11:27 a.m. PDT (2:27 p.m. EDT), hurtling at about 126,000 mph (56 kilometers per second). This proximity will provide an unprecedented opportunity for researchers to gather data on both the comet and its effect on the Martian atmosphere."This is a cosmic science gift that could potentially keep on giving, and the agency's diverse science missions will be in full receive mode," said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "This particular comet has never before entered the inner solar system, so it will provide a fresh source of clues to our solar system's earliest days."Siding Spring came from the Oort Cloud, a spherical region of space surrounding our sun and occupying space at a distance between 5,000 and 100,000 astronomical units. It is a giant swarm of icy objects believed to be material left over from the formation of the solar system.Siding Spring will be the first comet from the Oort Cloud to be studied up close by spacecraft, giving scientists an invaluable opportunity to learn more about the materials, including water and carbon compounds, that existed during the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago.Some of the best and most revealing images and science data will come from assets orbiting and roving the surface of Mars. In preparation for the comet flyby, NASA maneuvered its Mars Odyssey orbiter, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the newest member of the Mars fleet, Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN), in order to reduce the risk of impact with high-velocity dust particles coming off the comet.The period of greatest risk to orbiting spacecraft will start about 90 minutes after the closest approach of the comet's nucleus and will last about 20 minutes, when Mars will come closest to the center of the widening trail of dust flying from the nucleus."The hazard is not an impact of the comet nucleus itself, but the trail of debris coming from it. Using constraints provided by Earth-based observations, the modeling results indicate that the hazard is not as great as first anticipated. Mars will be right at the edge of the debris cloud, so it might encounter some of the particles -- or it might not," said Rich Zurek, chief scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.The atmosphere of Mars, though much thinner that Earth's, will shield NASA Mars rovers Opportunity and Curiosity from comet dust, if any reaches the planet. Both rovers are scheduled to make observations of the comet.NASA's Mars orbiters will gather information before, during and after the flyby about the size, rotation and activity of the comet's nucleus, the variability and gas composition of the coma around the nucleus, and the size and distribution of dust particles in the comet's tail.Observations of the Martian atmosphere are designed to check for possible meteor trails, changes in distribution of neutral and charged particles, and effects of the comet on air temperature and clouds. MAVEN will have a particularly good opportunity to study the comet, and how its tenuous atmosphere, or coma, interacts with Mars' upper atmosphere.Earth-based and space telescopes, including NASA's iconic Hubble Space Telescope, also will be in position to observe the unique celestial object. The agency's astrophysics space observatories -- Kepler, Swift, Spitzer, Chandra -- and the ground-based Infrared Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea, Hawaii -- also will be tracking the event.NASA's asteroid hunter, the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE), has been imaging, and will continue to image, the comet as part of its operations. And the agency's two Heliophysics spacecraft, Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) and Solar and Heliophysics Observatory (SOHO), also will image the comet. The agency's Balloon Observation Platform for Planetary Science (BOPPS), a sub-orbital balloon-carried telescope, already has provided observations of the comet in the lead-up to the close encounter with Mars.Images and updates will be posted online before and after the comet flyby. Several pre-flyby images of Siding Spring, as well as information about the comet and NASA's planned observations of the event, are available online at:http://mars.nasa.gov/comets/sidingspringThe California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-phoenix-lander-finishes-successful-work-on-red-planet

Mars Phoenix Lander Finishes Successful Work on Red Planet

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has ceased communications after operating for more than five months.

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has ceased communications after operating for more than five months. As anticipated, seasonal decline in sunshine at the robot's arctic landing site is not providing enough sunlight for the solar arrays to collect the power necessary to charge batteries that operate the lander's instruments.Mission engineers last received a signal from the lander on Nov. 2. Phoenix, in addition to shorter daylight, has encountered a dustier sky, more clouds and colder temperatures as the northern Mars summer approaches autumn. The mission exceeded its planned operational life of three months to conduct and return science data.The project team will be listening carefully during the next few weeks to hear if Phoenix revives and phones home. However, engineers now believe that is unlikely because of the worsening weather conditions on Mars. While the spacecraft's work has ended, the analysis of data from the instruments is in its earliest stages."Phoenix has given us some surprises, and I'm confident we will be pulling more gems from this trove of data for years to come," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona in Tucson.Launched Aug. 4, 2007, Phoenix landed May 25, 2008, farther north than any previous spacecraft to land on the Martian surface. The lander dug, scooped, baked, sniffed and tasted the Red Planet's soil. Among early results, it verified the presence of water-ice in the Martian subsurface, which NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter first detected remotely in 2002. Phoenix's cameras also returned more than 25,000 pictures from sweeping vistas to near the atomic level using the first atomic force microscope ever used outside Earth."Phoenix not only met the tremendous challenge of landing safely, it accomplished scientific investigations on 149 of its 152 Martian days as a result of dedicated work by a talented team," said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.Phoenix's preliminary science accomplishments advance the goal of studying whether the Martian arctic environment has ever been favorable for microbes. Additional findings include documenting a mildly alkaline soil environment unlike any found by earlier Mars missions; finding small concentrations of salts that could be nutrients for life; discovering perchlorate salt, which has implications for ice and soil properties; and finding calcium carbonate, a marker of effects of liquid water.Phoenix findings also support the goal of learning the history of water on Mars. These findings include excavating soil above the ice table, revealing at least two distinct types of ice deposits; observing snow descending from clouds; providing a mission-long weather record, with data on temperature, pressure, humidity and wind; observations of haze, clouds, frost and whirlwinds; and coordinating with NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to perform simultaneous ground and orbital observations of Martian weather."Phoenix provided an important step to spur the hope that we can show Mars was once habitable and possibly supported life," said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Phoenix was supported by orbiting NASA spacecraft providing communications relay while producing their own fascinating science. With the upcoming launch of the Mars Science Laboratory, the Mars Program never sleeps."The University of Arizona leads the Phoenix mission with project management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed Martin Corporation in Denver. International contributions came from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus in Denmark; the Max Planck Institute in Germany; the Finnish Meteorological Institute; and Imperial College of London.For additional information about Phoenix mission findings, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/phoenixorhttp://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassini-spies-the-ice-giant-planet-uranus

Cassini Spies the Ice-Giant Planet Uranus

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured its first-ever image of the pale blue ice-giant planet Uranus in the distance beyond Saturn's rings.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured its first-ever image of the pale blue ice-giant planet Uranus in the distance beyond Saturn's rings.The robotic spacecraft briefly turned its gaze away from the ringed beauty of Saturn on April 11, 2014, to observe the distant planet, which is the seventh planet from the sun.The image is available at:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA17178The planets Uranus and Neptune are sometimes referred to as "ice giants" to distinguish them from their larger siblings, Jupiter and Saturn, the classic "gas giants." The moniker derives from the fact that a comparatively large part of the planets' composition consists of water, ammonia and methane, which are typically frozen as ices in the cold depths of the outer solar system. Jupiter and Saturn are made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, with smaller percentages of these ices.When this view was obtained, Uranus was nearly on the opposite side of the sun as seen from Saturn, at a distance of approximately 28.6 astronomical units from Cassini and Saturn. An astronomical unit is the average distance from Earth to the sun, equal to 93 million miles (150 million kilometers). At their closest, the two planets approach to within about 10 astronomical units of each other.In addition to its aesthetic appeal, Cassini's view of Uranus also serves a practical purpose. Scientists working on several of Cassini's science investigations expect that they will be able to use images and spectra from these observations to help calibrate their own instruments.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.More information about Cassini is available at the following sites:http://www.nasa.gov/cassinihttp://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-cassini-sees-forces-controlling-enceladus-jets

NASA's Cassini Sees Forces Controlling Enceladus Jets

The intensity of jets of water ice and organic particles that shoot out from Enceladus depends on the moon's proximity to Saturn, according to NASA's Cassini spacecraft data.

PASADENA, Calif. -- The intensity of the jets of water ice and organic particles that shoot out from Saturn's moon Enceladus depends on the moon's proximity to the ringed planet, according to data obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.The finding adds to evidence that a liquid water reservoir or ocean lurks under the icy surface of the moon. This is the first clear observation the bright plume emanating from Enceladus' south pole varies predictably. The findings are detailed in a scientific paper in this week's edition of Nature."The jets of Enceladus apparently work like adjustable garden hose nozzles," said Matt Hedman, the paper's lead author and a Cassini team scientist based at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. "The nozzles are almost closed when Enceladus is closer to Saturn and are most open when the moon is farthest away. We think this has to do with how Saturn squeezes and releases the moon with its gravity."Cassini, which has been orbiting Saturn since 2004, discovered the jets that form the plume in 2005. The water ice and organic particles spray out from several narrow fissures nicknamed "tiger stripes.""The way the jets react so responsively to changing stresses on Enceladus suggests they have their origins in a large body of liquid water," said Christophe Sotin, a co-author and Cassini team member at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Liquid water was key to the development of life on Earth, so these discoveries whet the appetite to know whether life exists everywhere water is present."For years scientists hypothesized the intensity of the jets likely varied over time, but no one had been able to show they changed in a recognizable pattern. Hedman and colleagues were able to see the changes by examining infrared data of the plume as a whole, obtained by Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIMS), and looking at data gathered over a long period of time.The VIMS instrument, which enables the analysis of a wide range of data including the hydrocarbon composition of the surface of another Saturnian moon, Titan, and the seismological signs of Saturn's vibrations in its rings, collected more than 200 images of the Enceladus plume from 2005 to 2012.These data show the plume was dimmest when the moon was at the closest point in its orbit to Saturn. The plume gradually brightened until Enceladus was at the most distant point, where it was three to four times brighter than the dimmest detection. This is comparable to moving from a dim hallway into a brightly lit office.Adding the brightness data to previous models of how Saturn squeezes Enceladus, the scientists deduced the stronger gravitational squeeze near the planet reduces the opening of the tiger stripes and the amount of material spraying out. They think the relaxing of Saturn's gravity farther away from planet allows the tiger stripes to be more open and for the spray to escape in larger quantities."Cassini's time at Saturn has shown us how active and kaleidoscopic this planet, its rings and its moons are," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at JPL. "We've come a long way from the placid-looking Saturn that Galileo first spied through his telescope. We hope to learn more about the forces at work here as a microcosm for how our solar system formed."The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The VIMS team is based at the University of Arizona in Tucson.For more information about the Cassini mission, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/cassiniandhttp://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/viking-lander-2-mission-concluded

Viking Lander 2 Mission Concluded

NASA's Viking Lander 2 has ceased operating after three and one-half years on the surface of Mars.

NASA's Viking Lander 2 has ceased operating after three and one-half years on the surface of Mars.Flight controllers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory received unintelligible data during scheduled transmission from Lander 2 in mid-March.After analyzing engineering telemetry for several weeks, Viking officials concluded that loss of power in the batteries had led to an automatic shutdown of the cameras and other science instruments.The batteries provided power for the lander to transmit. Primary power source for the batteries and other systems is radioisotope thermoelectric generator -- small nuclear power device.Viking Lander 2 touched down on the surface of Mars Sept. 3, 1976, at 47.7 degrees north latitude. It operated continuously since that time.Lander 2 survived the rigors of two Martian winters, when temperatures dropped as low as 190 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.During its first 20 months on Mars, Lander 2 measured the composition of Mars' atmosphere and soil, continuously monitored the weather, dug many trenches, searched the soil for signs of living microorganisms, and took more than 1,800 pictures.Scientists say Lander 2's most important discovery may be that thin layer of white water-frost covers the ground at the far northern latitudes each winter.For the last two years, most of the lander's instruments were turned off, their missions completed.Scientists had continued to receive weather data and pictures from the lander. Lander 2 continued to operate normally until the problem that began Jan. 31, 1980.Lander 2 was scheduled to send its final science information to Earth on April 11.Viking Lander 1 continues to operate on the Martian surface and send data to Earth once week. Its on-board com puter has been programmed to enable the lander to automatically monitor weather and take pictures, then send the information directly to Earth. It should continue to do so through the 1980s.Viking Orbiter 1 is still operating and later this month will be moved to new orbit around Mars to take high resolution pictures of areas that have not been adequately covered. It is expected to quit working in June or July, when it runs out of attitude-control gas.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/rosetta-selflessly-beams-back-comet-selfie

Rosetta Selflessly Beams Back Comet Selfie

A composite image from a camera on the Rosetta mission's Philae comet lander shows a solar array, with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in the background.

A camera aboard the European Space Agency's Philae lander snapped this "selfie" of one of the Rosetta spacecraft's 52-foot-long (16-meter) solar arrays, with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko hovering in the background some 10 miles (16 kilometers) away. The image, taken by the Comet Infrared and Visible Analyser (CIVA), was taken on Oct. 7. Philae, which is connected to the Rosetta orbiter at this time, will make its descent to the surface of the comet on Nov. 12.In the image, the active 'neck' region of the comet is now clearly visible, with streams of dust and gas extending away from the comet. The primary landing site, currently known as "Site J," can also be seen on the smaller lobe of the comet.This is the last image from Philae before the lander separates from Rosetta on Nov. 12. The next image will be taken by CIVA shortly after separation, when the lander will look back at the orbiter to bid it a final farewell.Two individual CIVA images, one with a short exposure time, one with a longer one, were combined to capture the whole dynamic range of the scene, from the bright parts of the solar arrays to the dark comet and the dark insulation covering the Rosetta spacecraft.CIVA, one of 10 instruments on board Philae, comprises seven micro-cameras arranged around the top of the lander, and a visible/infrared microscope imager/spectrometer.Launched in March 2004, Rosetta was reactivated in January 2014 after a record 957 days in hibernation. Composed of an orbiter and lander, Rosetta's objectives since arriving at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko earlier this month have been to study the celestial object up close in unprecedented detail, prepare for landing a probe on the comet's nucleus in November, and following the landing, track the comet's changes as it sweeps past the sun.Comets are time capsules containing primitive material left over from the epoch when the sun and its planets formed. Rosetta's lander will obtain the first images taken from a comet's surface and will provide comprehensive analysis of the comet's possible primordial composition by drilling into the surface. Rosetta also will be the first spacecraft to witness at close proximity how a comet changes as it is subjected to the increasing intensity of the sun's radiation. Observations will help scientists learn more about the origin and evolution of our solar system and the role comets may have played in seeding Earth with water, and perhaps even life.Rosetta is a European Space Agency mission with contributions from its member states and NASA. Rosetta's Philae lander is provided by a consortium led by the German Aerospace Center, Cologne; Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Gottingen; National Center of Space Studies of France (CNES), Paris; and the Italian Space Agency, Rome. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the U.S. participation in the Rosetta mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.For more information on the U.S. instruments aboard Rosetta, visit:http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.govMore information about Rosetta is available at:http://www.esa.int/rosetta

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/curiosity-rover-preparing-for-thanksgiving-activities

Curiosity Rover Preparing for Thanksgiving Activities

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity completed a touch-and-go inspection of one rock on Sunday, Nov. 18, then pivoted and, on the same day, drove toward a Thanksgiving overlook location.

Mars Science Laboratory Mission Status ReportPASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity completed a touch-and-go inspection of one rock on Sunday, Nov. 18, then pivoted and, on the same day, drove toward a Thanksgiving overlook location.Last week, Curiosity drove for the first time after spending several weeks in soil-scooping activities at one location. On Friday, Nov. 16, the rover drove 6.2 feet (1.9 meters) to get within arm's reach of a rock called "Rocknest 3." On Sunday, it touched that rock with the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) on its arm, and took two 10-minute APXS readings of data about the chemical elements in the rock. Then Curiosity stowed its arm and drove 83 feet (25.3 meters) eastward toward a target called "Point Lake.""We have done touches before, and we've done goes before, but this is our first 'touch-and-go' on the same day," said Curiosity Mission Manager Michael Watkins of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "It is a good sign that the rover team is getting comfortable with more complex operational planning, which will serve us well in the weeks ahead."During a Thanksgiving break, the team will use Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) from Point Lake to examine possible routes and targets to the east. A priority is to choose a rock for the first use of the rover's hammering drill, which will collect samples of powder from rock interiors.Although Curiosity has departed the Rocknest patch of windblown sand and dust where it scooped up soil samples in recent weeks, the sample-handling mechanism on the rover's arm is still holding some soil from the fifth and final scoop collected at Rocknest. The rover is carrying this sample so it can be available for analysis by instruments within the rover if scientists choose that option in coming days.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the rover.More information about Curiosity is online athttp://www.nasa.gov/mslandhttp://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/. You can follow the mission on Facebook at:http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosityand on Twitter at:http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-ozone-study-may-benefit-air-standards-climate

NASA Ozone Study May Benefit Air Standards, Climate

A new NASA-led study finds that when it comes to combating global warming caused by emissions of ozone-forming chemicals, location matters.

PASADENA, Calif. - A new NASA-led study finds that when it comes to combating global warming caused by emissions of ozone-forming chemicals, location matters.Ozone is both a major air pollutant with known adverse health effects and a greenhouse gas that traps heat from escaping Earth's atmosphere. Scientists and policy analysts are interested in learning how curbing the emissions of these chemicals can improve human health and also help mitigate climate change.Research scientists Kevin Bowman of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and Daven Henze of the University of Colorado, Boulder, set out to quantify, down to areas the size of large metropolitan regions, how the climate-altering impacts of these chemical emissions vary around the world. The chemicals, which are produced from sources such as planes, factories and automobiles, are converted to ozone in the presence of sunlight and subsequently transported by wind around our planet. Among these chemicals are nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and non-methane hydrocarbons.By combining satellite observations of how much heat ozone absorbs in Earth's atmosphere with a model of how chemicals are transported in the atmosphere, the researchers discovered significant regional variability - in some places by more than a factor of 10 -- in how efficiently ozone trapped heat in Earth's atmosphere, depending upon where the ozone-forming chemical emissions were located. This variability was found within individual continents and even among different regions with similar emission levels within individual countries. High-latitude regions such as Europe had a smaller impact than lower-latitude regions like North America. Ozone was observed to be a more efficient greenhouse gas over hot regions like the tropics or relatively cloud-free regions like the Middle East. The satellite data were collected by the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer instrument on NASA's Aura spacecraft."When it comes to reducing ozone levels, emission reductions in one part of the world may drive greenhouse warming more than a similar level of emission reductions elsewhere," said Bowman, lead author of the study, published recently in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. "Where you clean up ozone precursor emissions makes a big difference. It's all about -- to use a real estate analogy -- location, location, location."Variations in chemicals that lead to the production of ozone are driven by industry and human population. For example, the U.S. Northeast has much higher ozone precursor emission levels than, say, Wisconsin."We show that, for example, even though Chicago has a level of ozone precursor emissions three times larger than the levels in Atlanta, reducing emissions by 10 percent in the Atlanta region has the same impact on climate as reducing emissions by 10 percent in Chicago," Bowman added. "This is because Atlanta is a much more efficient place than Chicago for affecting climate through ozone."The researchers found that the top 15 regional contributors to global ozone greenhouse gas levels were predominantly located in China and the United States, including the regions that encompass New Orleans, Atlanta and Houston.Bowman and Henze found considerable variability in how different types of emissions contribute to ozone's greenhouse gas effect. For example, compared to all nitrogen dioxide emissions -- both human-produced and natural -- industrial and transportation sources make up a quarter of the total greenhouse gas effect, whereas airplanes make up only one percent. They also found that nitrogen dioxide contributes about two-thirds of the ozone greenhouse gas effect compared to carbon monoxide and non-methane hydrocarbons.Bowman said the research suggests that solutions to improve air quality and combat climate change should be tailored for the regions in which they are to be executed."One question that's getting a lot of interest in policy initiatives such as the United Nations' Environment Programme Climate and Clean Air Coalition is controlling short-lived greenhouse gases like methane and ozone as part of a short-term strategy for mitigating climate change," Bowman said. "Our study could enable policy researchers to calculate the relative health and climate benefits of air pollution control and pinpoint where emission reductions will have the greatest impacts. This wasn't really possible to do at these scales before now. This is particularly important in developing countries like China, where severe air pollution problems are of greater concern to public officials than climate change mitigation in the short term.""Our study is an important step forward in this field because we've built a special model capable of looking at the effects of location at a very high resolution," said Henze. "The model simulations are based upon actual observations of ozone warming effects measured by NASA's Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer satellite instrument. This is the first time we've been able to separate observed heat trapping due to ozone into its natural versus human sources, and even into specific types of human sources, such as fossil fuels versus biofuels. This information can be used to mitigate climate change while improving air quality."For more information on TES, visit:http://tes.jpl.nasa.gov. You can follow JPL News on Facebook at:http://www.facebook.com/nasajpland on Twitter at:http://www.twitter.com/nasajpl.The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/panel-will-study-mars-global-surveyor-events

Panel Will Study Mars Global Surveyor Events

NASA has formed an internal review board to look more in-depth into why NASA's Mars Global Surveyor went silent in November 2006 and recommend any processes or procedures that could increase safety for other spacecraft.

NASA has formed an internal review board to look more in-depth into why NASA's Mars Global Surveyor went silent in November 2006 and recommend any processes or procedures that could increase safety for other spacecraft.Mars Global Surveyor launched in 1996 on a mission designed to study Mars from orbit for two years. It accomplished many important discoveries during nine years in orbit. On Nov. 2, the spacecraft transmitted information that one of its arrays was not pivoting as commanded. Loss of signal from the orbiter began on the following orbit.Mars Global Surveyor has operated longer at Mars than any other spacecraft in history and for more than four times as long as the prime mission originally planned.The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages Mars Global Surveyor for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operates the spacecraft.Information about the mission is available on the Internet at:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mgs/index.html.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/update-launch-coverage-of-earth-observing-satellites

Update: Launch Coverage of Earth-Observing Satellites

Revised dates have been set for the prelaunch briefing and launch of GRACE-FO, NASA's latest Earth-observing satellite mission.

Revised dates have been set for the prelaunch briefing and launch of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO), NASA's latest Earth-observing satellite mission. The briefing, now scheduled for Monday, May 21, and launch no earlier than Tuesday, May 22, will air on NASA Television and the agency'swebsite, and will be streamed live and archived onhttps://youtube.com/nasajpl/live.A joint mission with the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), GRACE-FO will provide critical measurements that will be used together with other data to monitor the movement of water masses across the planet and mass changes within Earth itself. Monitoring changes in ice sheets and glaciers, underground water storage, and sea level provides a unique view of Earth's climate and has far-reaching benefits. The mission is planned to fly at least five years.The prelaunch news briefing will be held at 10:30 a.m. PDT (1:30 p.m. EDT) May 21 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.Media and the public also may ask questions during the event via social media using the hashtag #askNASA.Briefing participants will be:David Jarrett, GRACE-FO program executive in the Earth Science Division at NASA HeadquartersFrank Webb, GRACE-FO project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion LaboratoryFrank Flechtner, GRACE-FO project manager at GFZPhil Morton, NASA GRACE-FO project manager at Jet Propulsion LaboratoryCapt. Jennifer Haden, weather officer for the 30th Space Wing at VandenbergThe satellites will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than 12:47 p.m. PDT (3:47 p.m. EDT) May 22 from Space Launch Complex-4E at Vandenberg. GRACE-FO will share its ride to orbit with five Iridium NEXT communications satellites as part of a commercial rideshare agreement.Launch coverage begins at 12:15 p.m. PDT (3:15 p.m. EDT) on NASA Television and the agency's website.JPL manages the GRACE-FO mission for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. GFZ contracted GRACE-FO launch services from Iridium, and SpaceX is providing the Falcon 9 launch service.Join the conversation online and follow GRACE-FO on Twitter and Facebook at:https://www.twitter.com/NASAEarthandhttps://www.facebook.com/NASAEarth

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/five-years-ago-and-154-million-miles-away-touchdown

Five Years Ago and 154 Million Miles Away: Touchdown!

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, which landed near Mount Sharp five years ago this week, is examining clues on that mountain about long-ago lakes on Mars.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, which landed near Mount Sharp five years ago this week, is examining clues on thatmountainabout long-ago lakes on Mars.On Aug. 5, 2012, the mission team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California,exaltedat radio confirmation and first images from Curiosity after the rover's touchdown using a new"sky crane"landing method. Transmissions at the speed of light took nearly 14 minutes to travel from Mars to Earth, which that day were about 154 million miles (248 million kilometers) apart.› DOWNLOAD VIDEO Curiosity's First Five Years of Science on MarsThosefirst imagesincluded a view of Mount Sharp. The mission accomplished its main goal in less than a year, before reaching the mountain. Itdeterminedthat an ancient lake environment on this part of Mars offered the conditions needed for life -- fresh water, other key chemical ingredients and an energy source.› DOWNLOAD VIDEO Rover POV: Five Years of Curiosity on MarsOn Mount Sharp since 2014,Curiosityhas examined environments where bothwaterandwindhave left their marks. Having studied more than 600 vertical feet of rock with signs of lakes and later groundwater, Curiosity's international science team concluded that habitable conditions lasted for at leastmillions of years. With higherdestinations ahead, Curiosity will continue exploring how this habitable world changed through time.› DOWNLOAD VIDEO A Guide To Gale CraterFor more about the mission, visit:https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-orbiters-spectrometer-shows-oort-comets-coma

Mars Orbiter's Spectrometer Shows Oort Comet's Coma

The imaging spectrometer on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has provided an image of the coma surrounding a comet that flew near Mars this week.

The Compact Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) observed comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring as the comet sped close to Mars on Oct. 19. CRISM recorded imaging data in 107 different wavelengths, showing the inner part of the cloud of dust, called the coma, surrounding the comet's nucleus.Two images from CRISM presenting three of the recorded wavelengths are online at:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA15291Comet Siding Spring -- an Oort Cloud comet that may contain material from the formation of the solar system some 4.6 billion years ago -- was making its first voyage through the inner solar system. CRISM and many other instruments and spacecraft combined forces to provide an unprecedented data set for an Oort Cloud comet.The appearance of color variations in the CRISM observations of the inner coma could be due to the properties of the comet's dust, possibly dust grain size or composition. The full spectra will be analyzed to better understand the reason for the color variations.The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, provided and operates CRISM. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the orbiter.For more about CRISM, visit:http://crism.jhuapl.edu/For more about Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit:http://mars.nasa.gov/mro/For more about comet Siding Spring, including other images of the comet, visit:http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/comets/sidingspring/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/newly-reprocessed-images-of-europa-show-chaos-terrain-in-crisp-detail

Newly Reprocessed Images of Europa Show 'Chaos Terrain' in Crisp Detail

Work is ongoing to refine images NASA's Galileo spacecraft captured of Europa as scientists prepare for exploration of Jupiter's icy moon.

The surface of Jupiter's moon Europa features a widely varied landscape, including ridges, bands, small rounded domes and disrupted spaces that geologists call "chaos terrain." Three newly reprocessed images, taken by NASA'sGalileospacecraft in the late 1990s, reveal details in diverse surface features on Europa.Although the data captured by Galileo is more than two decades old, scientists are using modern image processing techniques to create new views of the moon's surface in preparation for the arrival of theEuropa Clipperspacecraft. The orbiter of Jupiter will conduct dozens of flybys of Europa to learn more about the ocean beneath the moon's thick icy crust and how it interacts with the surface. The mission, set to launch in the next several years, will be the first return to Europa since Galileo."We've only seen a very small part of Europa's surface at this resolution. Europa Clipper will increase that immensely," said planetary geologist Cynthia Phillips of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena. As a Europa project staff scientist, she oversees a long-term research project to reanalyze images of the moon.The above map shows locations where each image, showcasing a variety of features, was captured by Galileo during its eighth targeted flyby of Jupiter's moon Europa.Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechThe surface of Jupiter's moon Europa features a widely varied landscape, including ridges, bands, small rounded domes and disrupted spaces that geologists call "chaos terrain." Three newly reprocessed images, taken by NASA'sGalileospacecraft in the late 1990s, reveal details in diverse surface features on Europa.Although the data captured by Galileo is more than two decades old, scientists are using modern image processing techniques to create new views of the moon's surface in preparation for the arrival of theEuropa Clipperspacecraft. The orbiter of Jupiter will conduct dozens of flybys of Europa to learn more about the ocean beneath the moon's thick icy crust and how it interacts with the surface. The mission, set to launch in the next several years, will be the first return to Europa since Galileo."We've only seen a very small part of Europa's surface at this resolution. Europa Clipper will increase that immensely," said planetary geologist Cynthia Phillips of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena. As a Europa project staff scientist, she oversees a long-term research project to reanalyze images of the moon.All three images were captured along the same longitude of Europa as Galileo flew by on Sept. 26, 1998, in the eighth of the spacecraft's 11 targeted flybys of Europa. High-resolution images revealing features as small as 500 yards (460 meters) across were taken through a clear filter in grayscale (black and white). Using lower-resolution color images of the same region from a different flyby, technicians mapped color onto the higher-resolution images - a painstaking process.Enhanced-color images like these allow scientists to highlight geologic features with different colors. Such images don't show Europa as it would appear to the human eye, but instead exaggerate color variations to highlight different chemical compositions of the surface. Areas that appear light blue or white are made of relatively pure water ice, and reddish areas have more non-ice materials, such as salts.Planetary scientists study high-resolution images ofEuropafor clues about how the surface formed. At an average of 40 million to 90 million years old, the surface we see today is much younger than Europa itself, which formed along with the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. In fact, Europa has among the youngest surfaces in the solar system, one of its many intriguing oddities.The long, linear ridges and bands that crisscross Europa's surface are thought to be related to the response of Europa's icy surface crust as it is stretched and pulled by Jupiter's strong gravity. Ridges may form when a crack in the surface opens and closes repeatedly, building up a feature that's typically a few hundred yards tall, a few miles wide and can span horizontally for thousands of miles.In contrast, bands are locations where cracks appear to have continued pulling apart horizontally, producing wide, relatively flat features.Areas of so-called chaos terrain contain blocks that have moved sideways, rotated or tilted before being refrozen into their new locations. To understand how they might have formed, scientists study these blocks as if they are jumbled puzzle pieces.The Galileo mission was managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Additional information about Galileo and its discoveries is available on the Galileo mission home page at:http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/galileo/More information about Europa and Europa Clipper is available at:europa.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/excitement-grows-as-nasa-carbon-sleuth-begins-year-two

Excitement Grows as NASA Carbon Sleuth Begins Year Two

Scientists poring over data from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission are seeing patterns emerge as they seek answers to questions about atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Scientists busy poring over more than a year of data from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) mission are seeing patterns emerge as they seek answers to the science questions that drive the mission.Launched in July 2014, OCO-2, an experimental carbon-dioxide measurement mission, is designed to give the international science community a new view of the global carbon cycle in unprecedented detail. During its two-year primary mission, the satellite observatory is tracking the large-scale movement of carbon between Earth's atmosphere, its plants and soil, and the ocean, from season to season and from year to year. OCO-2 began routine science operations in September 2014."We can already clearly see patterns of seasonal change and variations in carbon dioxide around the globe," said Annmarie Eldering, OCO-2 deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "Far more subtle features are expected to emerge over time."A new animation depicting the first full year of OCO-2 science operations is available at:https://youtu.be/_UEZqyGU5RUArmed with a full annual cycle of data, OCO-2 scientists are now beginning to study the net sources of carbon dioxide as well as their "sinks" -- places in the Earth system that store carbon, such as the ocean and plants on land. This information will help scientists better understand the natural processes currently absorbing more than half the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere by human activities. This is a key to understanding how Earth's climate may change in the future as greenhouse gas concentrations increase.The first year of data from the mission reveals a portrait of a dynamic, living planet. Between mid-May and mid-July 2015, OCO-2 saw a dramatic reduction in the abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide across the northern hemisphere, as plants on land sprang to life and began rapidly absorbing carbon dioxide from the air to form new leaves, stems and roots. During this intense, two-month period, known as the "spring drawdown," OCO-2 measurements show the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide over much of the northern hemisphere decreased by two to three percent. That's 8 to 12 parts per million out of the global average background concentration of 400 parts per million."That's a big but expected change," said Eldering. "This is the first time we've ever had the opportunity to observe the spring drawdown across the entire northern hemisphere with this kind of spatial resolution, seeing changes from week to week."Also as expected, OCO-2 data show increased concentrations of carbon dioxide associated with human activities. Higher carbon dioxide levels of several parts per million are seen in regions where fossil fuels are being consumed by large power plants or megacities. Enhanced levels are also seen in the Amazon, Central Africa and Indonesia, where forests are being cleared and burned to create fields for agricultural use.Researchers Abhishek Chatterjee of the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland; and Michelle Gierach and Dave Schimel of JPL are investigating a strong correlation observed between atmospheric carbon dioxide over the Pacific Ocean and the current El Nino. Fluctuations in carbon dioxide appear to be strongly linked with warmer sea surface temperatures. OCO-2's unprecedented density of measurements is giving researchers a unique data set to understand and separate the roles that sea surface temperatures, winds, regional emissions and other variables may be playing in the carbon dioxide concentrations."We believe 2016 will see breakthrough OCO-2 research results, as scientists work to unravel the mysteries of finding carbon dioxide sources and natural sinks," said Eldering.Through most of OCO-2's first year in space, the mission team was busy calibrating its science instrument, learning how to process its massive amount of data, and delivering data products to NASA's Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES-DISC) in Greenbelt, Maryland, for distribution to the world's science community.Scientists are comparing OCO-2 data to ground-based measurements to validate the satellite data and tie it to internationally accepted standards for accuracy and precision.Routine delivery of OCO-2 data -- calibrated spectra of reflected sunlight that reveal the fingerprints of carbon dioxide -- began in late 2014, while estimates of carbon dioxide derived from cloud-free OCO-2 observations have been delivered since March 2015. Recently, the OCO-2 team reprocessed the OCO-2 data set to incorporate improvements in instrument calibration and correct other known issues with the original data release.Every day, OCO-2 orbits Earth 14.5 times and collects and returns about a million measurements. After eliminating data contaminated by clouds, aerosols and steep terrain, between 10 to 13 percent of the measurements are of sufficient quality to derive accurate estimates of the average carbon dioxide concentration between Earth's surface and space. That's at least 100 times more carbon dioxide measurements than from all other sources of precise carbon dioxide data combined.NASA uses the vantage point of space to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives and safeguard our future. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records. The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing.For more information on OCO-2, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/oco-2For more information about NASA's Earth science activities, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/earth

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/saturns-rings-offer-a-fresco-of-color

Saturn's Rings Offer a Fresco of Color

With shimmering pinks, hues of gray and a hint of brown, a newly released image of Saturn's rings resembles a fresco where nature is the painter.

With shimmering pinks, hues of gray and a hint of brown, a newly released image of Saturn's rings resembles a fresco where nature is the painter. The Cassini spacecraft captured this exquisite natural color view a few days before entering orbit around Saturn.The images that make up this composition were obtained from Cassini's vantage point beneath the ring plane with the narrow angle camera on June 21, 2004. The image was taken at a distance of 6.4 million kilometers (4 million miles) from Saturn.The brightest part of the rings, curving from the upper right to the lower left in the image, is the B ring. Many bands throughout the B ring have a pronounced sandy color. Other color variations across the rings can be seen. Color variations in Saturn's rings have previously been seen in Voyager and Hubble Space Telescope images. Cassini images show that color variations in the rings are more distinct in this viewing geometry than they are when seen from Earth.Saturn's rings are made primarily of water ice. Since pure water ice is white, it is believed that different colors in the rings reflect different amounts of contamination by other materials, such as rock or carbon compounds. In conjunction with information from other Cassini instruments, Cassini images will help scientists determine the composition of Saturn's ring system.In the 1980s, two Voyager spacecraft flew by Saturn as did Pioneer 11 in 1979. Those fly-by missions raised tantalizing questions that can now be addressed by Cassini's planned four year tour. Scientists have waited 25 years for an opportunity to answer these questions.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.For this and other images and information about the Cassini- Huygens mission, visithttp://saturn.jpl.nasa.govandhttp://www.nasa.gov/cassini. Images are also available at the Cassini imaging team home page,http://ciclops.org.Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science InstituteCarolina Martinez (818) 354-9382Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.Heidi Finn (720) 974-5859Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OperationsSpace Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.2004-185

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-rover-opportunity-takes-first-peek-into-victoria-crater

NASA Rover Opportunity Takes First Peek Into Victoria Crater

On Monday, NASA's Mars rover Opportunity got to within about 160 feet of the rim of the half-mile-wide Victoria Crater, the rover's destination since late 2004.

On Monday, NASA's Mars rover Opportunity got to within about 160 feet of the rim of the half-mile-wide Victoria Crater, the rover's destination since late 2004.The new position gave Opportunity a glimpse of the crater's opposite wall. That view from the navigation camera on the rover is available online at+ Mars Exploration Rovers home page."Opportunity has been heading toward Victoria for more than 20 months, with no guarantee it would ever get there, so we are elated to see this view," said Justin Maki of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., an imaging scientist on the rover team. "However, we still have another two or three short drives before Opportunity is really right at the rim, looking down into the crater."Once Opportunity reaches the rim, the rover’s panoramic camera will begin the task of creating a high-definition color mosaic. That mosaic of images will provide scientists not only with a beautiful view of the crater, but will also provide geologic details of the crater walls.The width of Victoria crater is the equivalent of eight football fields placed end to end. That makes it about five times wider than "Endurance Crater," which Opportunity spent six months examining in 2004, and about 40 times wider than "Eagle Crater," where Opportunity first landed.The great lure of Victoria is the expectation that a thick stack of geological layers will be exposed in the crater walls, potentially several times the thickness that was previously studied at Endurance and, therefore, potentially preserving several times the historical record. Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, are robotic geologists with instruments for examining rocks to learn about the ancient environmental conditions that existed at the times the rocks were formed. Opportunity has already found exposed rock layers that were formed in flowing surface water and other layers formed as windblown sand. Analyzing the layers at Victoria could extend the story further back in time.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the Mars Exploration Rover mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. For additional images and information about the mission, visithttp://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer.