Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration - The Universe is Timeless

[kato]

ESA released a pretty cool video explaining the proposed AIDA mission yesterday:

http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2015/04/Asteroid_Impact_Mission

I guess the name "Didymoon" for the impact target is now sort of official...

[kato]

next batch (early June) will contain the NAVCAM pictures of the landing.

Aaaand... it's there. The NAVCAM team dumped about 1800 pictures of the landing phase into that archive today, pushing its total beyond 5000. Pictures like this one at 77cm/px resolution from 8 km distance:


ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

[rebs]

Great stuff.  Glad I am being kept updated, now!   ;D

As for the image, it's kind of cool to compare the landscape of an environment that lacks erosive elements with topography that we would be more familiar with. 

[Weirdo]

No kidding. Every time I look at that picture, my brain insists it's an image of a small rock at the bottom of a cliff face. Then the intellectual parts go back to that text saying this stuff is eight kilometers away...and the boggling begins.

[ANS Kamas P81]

No kidding. Every time I look at that picture, my brain insists it's an image of a small rock at the bottom of a cliff face. Then the intellectual parts go back to that text saying this stuff is eight kilometers away...and the boggling begins.

Helps when you have proper figures for reference.

[rebs]

Blast that lizard! 

I mean, literally.  I hope Kirk remembers the plan...  :D

[kato]

Now we know why there's that cliff between the two parts of 67P/C-G. Damn fusion bomb mortars.

[Wrangler]

The wobbly moons of Pluto!

Los Angeles Times posted this story, about Pluto's moons.  Apparently from early observations of Dawn show Nix and the couple moons are really wobbly in their orbits.  Apparently looks like it possible that Charon and Pluto are orbiting each other, a binary planet.  The article says it believed that this was result of a collision between the planets.  Charon brushes by the smaller moons, so closely that they sprung in way that they swing wild directions to upside down.

Hopefully we'll get better picture when New Horizons spins by.  Hopefully the wild gravity fluxes of the system doesn't mess things up so much for the probe.

[Atlas3060]

No kidding. Every time I look at that picture, my brain insists it's an image of a small rock at the bottom of a cliff face. Then the intellectual parts go back to that text saying this stuff is eight kilometers away...and the boggling begins.

For me it brings up all sorts of Sagan-esque philosophical stuff.
I see that rock and think, "How similar to all of our rocks on this world."
Then that intellectual part remembers how with atmosphere and water, I really wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

[kato]

Apparently from early observations of Dawn

All Hubble. Nix and Hydra have been observed for the last three years for the current study.

Apparently looks like it possible that Charon and Pluto are orbiting each other, a binary planet.

... which has been known since Charon was discovered back in '78. That the two orbit a common barycenter outside either's body, that is. There's even resolved New Horizons pictures showing that in situ already.

What the new study shows is that in a close orbit around such a binary system, other moons are heavily influenced in such a way that they're torn forward and backward, basically tumbling at their position in orbit depending on where the two main bodies of the system are. With a single central planet, moons of this size would be tidally locked; here they aren't because there are rather large masses pulling their oblong shapes backwards and forwards.

[kato]

ESA has possibly found Philae:

http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/06/11/the-quest-to-find-philae-2/



Zoom-in video using a Dec 13, 2014 OSIRIS image of the area: http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/56010-philae-search-zooming-in-on-a-promising-candidate/
(also available for download in various resolutions up to 1080p there)

The CONSERT ellipse shown in that image is 16 x 160 meters. The possible location of Philae would be about 10 meters off to the side, which is one of two cons regarding a possible positive.
They initially had five similar candidates for reflective Philae-sized objects, of which four have been ruled out.

A full positive identification will require close flybys of the area by Rosetta, which will not be possible until the comet has settled again after its perihelion.

[kato]

Oh, Fobos-Grunt ... what could have been!  :'(

JAXA is apparently now considering a Phobos sample return mission for the early 2020s, based on experience from the two Hayabusa sample return missions and one planned for the moon for 2020.

[kato]

Aaand... just like Hide-and-Seek. They caught where he's hiding, he's back to talking.

Philae has responded.

[Frabby]

Philae has responded.

Briefly anyways. The probe sent a signal (a carrier signal I presume) for two minutes, and sent data for 40 seconds. But still, we now know it's still alive and the closer it's getting to the sun the longer its operating hours will be. All in all, good news!

[kato]

(a carrier signal I presume)

Nah, more like a handshaking protocol*. Philae was preprogrammed to try contacting Philae at certain intervals (iirc once per hour) once enough power is available. Upon confirmation of Rosetta receiving Philae then sent 300 current data packets in those 40 seconds. Then Rosetta was probably out of its communication window.

* see http://europlanet-scinet.fi/EP_Mars_WS_May11/CDMS_Briefly_Helsinki.pdf

[rebs]

From what I understand, there is only a limited portion of each day devoted to data transmission during the best of times, anyway.  Intermittent communication in planned intervals is all part of it.  The lengthy delay in this instance was unexpected, but from everything I've read, we're in no danger of losing out on the full scope of data that this mission has promised from the start.

Was glad to see that.  Especially since we're getting so close to Pluto.

Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.  [skull]

[rebs]

New Europa mission passes its first major review:

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/display.cfm?News_ID=49362

[kato]

It'll be interesting what Johann-Dietrich Wörner will do in his first 6 months or so once he becomes the new Director-General of ESA in July. From what he's been saying the last two months I'm fully expecting him to push for establishing a European manned spaceflight capacity (possibly as a expansion from DC4EU, which he extended till 2017 before ending his term as DLR chief) and lay the groundworks for a manned lunar mission.

[ANS Kamas P81]

V404 Cygni just woke up in a huge way.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Integral/Monster_black_hole_wakes_up_after_26_years

“The behaviour of this source is extraordinary at the moment, with repeated bright flashes of light on time scales shorter than an hour, something rarely seen in other black hole systems,” comments Erik Kuulkers, Integral project scientist at ESA.

“In these moments, it becomes the brightest object in the X-ray sky – up to fifty times brighter than the Crab Nebula, normally one of the brightest sources in the high-energy sky.”

It's 7800ly away, 1300ly further than the Crab, and it's outshining it by a factor of fifty.  It just ate something truly massive, and I can only wonder what's going through Hawking's mind right now.  Besides, of course, "Oh man, oh man, ohmanohmanohman."

[rebs]

Nice article and link.  The universe is a fine and safe place, indeed.

As long as nothing devours Pluto (or us) in the next two weeks, I'll be happy. 

[worktroll]

Alas not deep space ... bad luck on the Falcon 9 today.

I'm guessing that the 2nd stage started to leak. I'm also guessing a failed vent or premature pump start; it was venting for some seconds but not losing structural integrity, until ... boom.

[kato]

Mostly a problem for ISS. If the July 3rd Progress launch fails too now they'll have to send some crew down to stretch food resources instead of sending up new crew three weeks later. And the loss of the IDA-1 docking adaptor ain't nice either, though that won't become important before 2017.

Launches to ISS this year:

01/10 - Dragon CRS-5 (successful) - berthed 01/12 to 02/10 / Harmony Nadir (note: payload included CATS)
02/17 - Progress M-26M (successful) - docked 02/17 to 08/26 (planned) / Zvezda Aft
03/27 - Soyuz TMA-16M (successful) - docked 03/27 to 09/11 (planned) / Poisk Zenith
04/14 - Dragon CRS-6 (successful) - berthed 04/17 to 05/21 / Harmony Nadir
04/28 - Progress M-27M (failed)
06/28 - Dragon CRS-7 (failed) (note: payload included IDA-1)
07/03 - Progress M-28M (planned) - originally planned for 08/06
07/23 - Soyuz TMA-17M (planned) (Expedition 44)
08/16 - Kounotori HTV-5 (planned) (note: payload includes NREP and CALET, among others)
09/01 - Soyuz TMA-18M (planned) (Expedition 45)
09/02 - Dragon CRS-8 (planned) (note: payload includes BEAM)
09/21 - Progress M-29M (planned)
11/22 - Progress MS-1 (planned) (note: first Progress-MS flight)
12/03 - Cygnus CRS-4 (planned) (note: first "enhanced Cygnus" flight)
12/09 - Dragon CRS-9 (planned) (note: payload includes IDA-2)
12/15 - Soyuz TMA-19M (planned) (Expedition 46)

(noted payloads are individual 500+ kg items to be added to the station as opposed to small supply parts)

[rebs]

I never fail to marvel at the details you bring to this thread that would otherwise be a bunch of links, kato.

And Off Topic to me means no problem on tangents, I don't know about anyone else.  Tangential conversations always yield so much more than expected, it often seems to me.  I certainly can't criticize anyone in that area of forum use, anyway.

[kato]

P.S. to above : Progress M-29M is pulled forward from an originally planned launch date of April 2016 (!).

The reason it can be ready that soon is because it was originally meant to stand ready as an operational backup in case something went wrong with the new Progress MS model. The current plan is now to replace M-26M with M-29M in September in order to have a Progress docked until up to March 2016 even if MS-1 has problems - Progress MS-2 is planned to launch in February. M-28M, originally slated for that replacement, won't last that far since it now launches in July.

Progress MS updates the automatic approach and navigation systems. Has been tested previously by M-21M, but in one of multiple dockings and redockings the automatic approach entered a safe mode and had to be overridden with crew on ISS manually docking her. Not that much of a problem (they have to manually berth Dragon, Cygnus and HTV every time), but something better to plan around.

Progress of course being important in this regard primarily since unlike everything else visiting it provides stationkeeping for ISS through its own thrusters and by delivering propellant to Zvezda.

[kato]

Potential crisis averted, Progress M-28M docked successfully (albeit taking 48-hour route to ISS, not the usual 6-hour fast route).

Meanwhile, New Horizons is in its own potential crisis as it apparently entered a safe mode yesterday.
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/07042044-new-horizons-enters-safe-mode.html

[ANS Kamas P81]

Potential crisis averted, Progress M-28M docked successfully (albeit taking 48-hour route to ISS, not the usual 6-hour fast route).

Meanwhile, New Horizons is in its own potential crisis as it apparently entered a safe mode yesterday.
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/07042044-new-horizons-enters-safe-mode.html

Last message received before safe mode was a telemetry sequence of AREWETHEREYETAREWETHEREYETAREWETHEREYET

[worktroll]

Meanwhile, New Horizons is in its own potential crisis as it apparently entered a safe mode yesterday.
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/07042044-new-horizons-enters-safe-mode.html

No, not good; glad it reconnected. Going to have to light some more candles for this one.

[rebs]

Fingers crossed.

[BirdofPrey]

Looks like it will be back up and ready in a couple of days
http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-plans-july-7-return-to-normal-science-operations

I am, however confused as to what a "timing flaw" is and how it is possible for it to be related to neither hardware OR software.


I'm glad the Progress managed to dock.  it's kind of frightening, that in the span of a year Three different groups each using three different spacecraft and launch vehicles have all managed to lose a cargo mission to the ISS.

[kato]

"Timing flaw" can be something like preprogramming the spacecraft to turn to a certain attitude for some observation at a certain point in time while already having scheduled that moment for communications with Earth. Spacecraft then suddenly turns severing the link, which autopilot notes and immediately interferes with to recover datalink as priority. Since main program apparently tries to shift attitude, the autopilot then overrides it, entering safe mode and switching to backup.