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ROUGH RED PLANET ROCKS RIP ROVER CURIOSITY WHEELS
by KEN KREMER on DECEMBER 26, 2013Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @UNIVERSETODAY on TwitterPhotomosaic shows new holes and tears in several of rover Curiosity's six wheels caused by recent driving over sharp edged Martian rocks on the months long trek to Mount Sharp. Raw images taken by the MAHLI camera on Curiosity's arm on Dec. 22, 2013 (Sol 490) were assembled to show some recent damage to several of its six wheels - most noticeably the two here in middle and front. Credit: NASA / JPL / MSSS / Marco Di Lorenzo / Ken Kremer- kenkremer.com
SEE BELOW COMPLETE 6 WHEEL MOSAIC AND FURTHER WHEEL MOSAICS FOR COMPARISONRough edged rocks on the Red Planet are clearly taking their toll on rover Curiosity's hi tech wheels as she speeds towards her ultimate goal - humongous Mount Sharp - in search of the ingredients necessary to sustain potential Martian microbes.Several of the NASA rovers six big aluminum wheels have suffered some significant sized rips, tears and holes up to several centimeters wide - in addition to numerous dents - as she has picked up the driving pace across the rugged, rock filled Martian terrain this past fall and put over 4.5 kilometers (3 mi.) on the odometer to date.It's rather easy to spot the wheel damage to the 1 ton behemoth by examining the mosaic imagery we have created - See above and below - from newly transmitted raw imagery and comparing that to older imagery taken at earlier points in the mission. Check our Sol 177 wheels mosaic below.Remove this adThe latest imagery from Mars captured just prior to Christmas is delivering an undesired holiday present of sorts to team members that might well cause the scientists and engineers to alter Curiosity's extraterrestrial road trip to traverse smoother terrain and thereby minimize future harm.So the wheel damage is certainly manageable at this point but will require attention.The team of Marco Di Lorenzo and Ken Kremer have assembled the new Mastcam and MAHLI raw images captured on Sol 490 (Dec. 22) into fresh color mosaics - shown herein.Photomosaic shows new holes and tears in several of rover Curiosity's six wheels caused by recent driving over sharp edged Martian rocks on the months long trek to Mount Sharp. Raw images taken by the MAHLI camera on Curiosity's arm on Dec. 22, 2013 (Sol 490) were assembled to show some recent damage to several of its six wheels - most noticeably the two at right in middle and front. Credit: NASA / JPL / MSSS / Marco Di Lorenzo / Ken Kremer- kenkremer.com
See below more wheel mosaics for comparisonAds by ViewPasswordAd OptionsPhotomosaic from Sol 177 (Feb. 3, 2013) shows rover Curiosity's six wheels relatively intact with far fewer holes and dents compared to Sol 490 mosaic taken on Dec 22. 2013. Rover is working in Yellowknife Bay here and had not yet begun long trek to Mount Sharp. Sol 177 raw images assembled to mosaic were taken by the MAHLI camera on Curiosity's arm. Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS/Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer- kenkremer.comIndeed the rovers handlers have already directed the SUV sized Curiosity to snap close up images of the wheels with the high resolution color cameras located on the Mast as well as the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the rover's maneuverable robotic arm."We want to take a full inventory of the condition of the wheels," said Jim Erickson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, project manager for the NASA Mars Science Laboratory Project, in a NASA statement.Up close view of hole in one of rover Curiosity's six wheels caused by recent driving over rough Martian rocks. Mosaic assembled from Mastcam raw images taken on Dec. 22, 2013 (Sol 490) Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS/Ken Kremer -kenkremer.com/Marco Di LorenzoThe rover team certainly expected some wear and tear to accumulate along the rock strewn path to the base of Mount Sharp - which reaches 5.5 km (3.4 mi) into the Martian sky.But the volume of sharp edged rocks encountered in the momentous trek across the floor of Curiosity's Gale Crater landing site apparently has picked up- as evidenced by the new pictures - and consequently caused more damage than the engineers anticipated."Dents and holes were anticipated, but the amount of wear appears to have accelerated in the past month or so," Erickson noted."It appears to be correlated with driving over rougher terrain. The wheels can sustain significant damage without impairing the rover's ability to drive. However, we would like to understand the impact that this terrain type has on the wheels, to help with planning future drives."The team is now inspecting the new imagery acquired of the wheels and will decide if a course alteration to Mount Sharp is in order.The left front wheel may have suffered the most harm.Up close view shows a tear in one of rover Curiosity's six wheels caused by recent driving over rough Martian rocks. Mosaic assembled from Mastcam raw images taken on Dec. 22, 2013 (Sol 490) Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS/Ken Kremer -kenkremer.com/Marco Di Lorenzo"Routes to future destinations for the mission may be charted to lessen the amount of travel over such rough terrain, compared to smoother ground nearby," says NASA.Following a new, post Christmas drive today, Dec. 26, 2013 (Sol 494) Curiosity's odometer stands at 4.6 kilometers.Curiosity has already accomplished her primary goal of discovering a habitable zone on Mars that could support Martian microbes if they ever existed.NASA's rover Curiosity uncovered evidence that an ancient Martian lake had the right chemical ingredients that could have sustained microbial life forms for long periods of time - and that these habitable conditions persisted on the Red Planet until a more recent epoch than previously thought.Right now the researchers are guiding Curiosity along a 10 km (6 mi) path to the lower reaches of Mount Sharp - which they hope to reach sometime in mid 2014.Ads by ViewPasswordAd OptionsNASA's Mars rover Curiosity took this self-portrait, composed of more than 50 images using its robotic arm-mounted MAHLI camera, on Feb. 3. The image shows Curiosity at the John Klein drill site. A drill hole is visible at bottom left. Credit: NASA / JPL / MSSS / Marco Di Lorenzo / Ken Kremer- kenkremer.comStay tuned here for Ken's continuing Curiosity, Chang'e-3, LADEE, MAVEN, Mars rover and MOM news.Ken Kremer
Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/107405/rough-red-planet-rocks-rip-rover-curiosity-wheels/#ixzz2ohHkuiJ4
Well needless to say, NASA is at it again. They announced that the Mars rover is forgetting its daily data and cannot share it with the public because of that. Hmmm...very convenient NASA, since the rover just entered into an area with a lot of ancient alien archeological site. The Curiosity rover cost over 2.5 billion dollars to make and it has a glitch like this? Hello, I could put a team together in a week that could build a better rover for 10% the cost. A lot of that money went into black ops missions the rover will perform that the public will not be allowed to know. Still have doubts? Have you see the rover wheels? Each of the wheels has 4-8 holes in them the size of quarters. These are metal wheels! Now the rover has only driven 40km. The temperature on Mars is 20 Celsius (70F) during noon, and -150C (-225F) at night, so we know the wheels are not melting.
I've seen NASA do this several times in the past. They say something interesting is about to happened, like a satellite is about to travel through a gutser plume from a planet and it will test the liquid for chemical makeup. They when it did, NASA said, "Oh, sorry, we had a glitch just as it entered the plume and it didn't run the test as planned." When they actually did get the results which would send scientists around the globe into a frenzy.
The truth is NASA is performing a lot of covert missions with this rover and they are not allowing the public to know about it. That is more like the NSA than NASA. SCW
Origin: project-ufo.blogspot.com
America's Next Rocket
NASA's Space Launch System, or SLS, will be the most powerful rocket in history. The flexible, evolvable design of this advanced, heavy-lift launch vehicle will meet a variety of crew and cargo mission needs. In addition to carrying the Orion spacecraft, SLS will transfer important cargo, equipment and science experiments to deep space, providing the nation with a safe, affordable and sustainable means to expand our reach in the solar system. It will allow astronauts aboard Orion to explore multiple deep-space destinations including an asteroid and ultimately Mars. The first configuration of the SLS launch vehicle will have a 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capacity and carry an un-crewed Orion spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit to test the performance of the integrated system. As the SLS is evolved, it will be the most powerful rocket ever built and provide an unprecedented lift capability of 130 metric tons (143 tons) to enable missions even farther into our solar system. Image Credit: NASA
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 12:54:12 -0700
From: Mars List Manager
To: Mars Society Mail-List Member
*
Subject: Mars Society call to Action
Mars Society Special Bulletin Number 2
Reprint and pass on as desired.
For further information about the Mars Society visit our website at http://www.marssociety.org or
http://nw.net/mars for our No-Frames site.
Mars Society Calls for Mobilization to Save Mars 2001 Mission Rover
As a result of the Clinton Administration's pulling of 60 million in committed funds to support the Mars 2001 mission, NASA has canceled plans to fly the "Athena" robotic rover to Mars in that year.
Because of greatly expanded science requirements, an extra 60 million was actually needed to fly the two-spacecraft 2001 Mars mission as planned. The administration's decision to subtract 60 million, instead of adding it, was a devastating blow.
This decision represents a massive setback to the US Mars exploration program. The Athena rover is a highly instrumented mobile rover capable of traveling tens of kilometers across the Martian surface; imaging, examining the soil chemistry and mineralogy of Mars, drilling beneath the surface, and searching for evidence of life. It is a major scale-up in both size, technology, and overall capability compared to the highly successful Sojourner rover that flew to Mars during the Pathfinder mission of July
1997. It is meant as the precursor to a still more capable rover that would fly to Mars in 2003 to gather samples for the Mars Sample Return mission scheduled for 2005. Canceling the Athena rover or delaying its flight till
2003 (the next mission opportunity) will push back the schedule of the entire Mars exploration program by at least two years.
The decision to cancel Athena represents a violation of President Clinton's promise made in August 1996 to "put the full intellectual and technological might of the United States behind the search for life on Mars." It is also a violation of the administration's space policy document released in October
1996 which promised a permanent robotic presence on Mars by the year 2000.
It's also just plain nuts. The current JPL robotic Mars exploration program is one of the few organizations within NASA to actually implement NASA Administrator Dan Goldin's call for "faster, better, cheaper" mission design. Recent missions implemented by this group have been carried out at about 1/5th the cost of missions of comparable complexity (such as Cassini, Galileo, Mars Observer, and EOS) implemented elsewhere or earlier by NASA.
To stop this extremely productive program dead in its tracks to save 120 million (spread over three years, out of a 13,000 million/year NASA budget)
shows an incredible misjudgment of priorities.
There are two other components of the Mars 2001 mission that are still scheduled to fly: An orbiter equipped with a gamma ray spectrometer to prospect the chemical composition of the planet, and a lander equipped with experiments demonstrating the ability to make rocket propellant on Mars out of the local atmosphere and for measuring radiation levels on the Martian surface. Both of these components are also vital to the future of Mars exploration. Saving the rover by canceling one of these is not an option.
Instead, the 60 million in funds pulled from the program must be restored, and the extra 60 million required added to provide the 2001 mission the full 400 million budget it needs to be done right.
The Mars Society calls upon every individual and organization concerned with space exploration to rally to turn this disastrous decision around. You can help by sending e-mail expressing your concern to all of the people listed at the end of this section.
And while you're at it, you might also let them know that while restoring the robotic Mars exploration program to fiscal health is absolutely necessary, it's not enough. The American space program overall needs a mission worthy of a 13 billion per year space agency, and that can only be the human exploration of Mars. The Clinton-Gore administration may not be interested in continuing America's pioneering tradition in space, but they owe it to the American people not to deny the person they choose as their next president that option. Starting now, NASA's Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS) division needs to be funded to prepare human Mars exploration at minimally the same level of funding (about 150
million/year) as the robotic Mars program. This will allow the HEDS group to conduct the critical Phase A planning and key technology demonstration effort that will enable NASA to say to the next President-Elect on the day following the Nov. 2000 election: "Here is our plan. These are our detailed designs, time-lines and cost estimates. We can have people on Mars by 2008, before the end of your second term. The choice is yours."
Save the robotic Mars exploration program.
Start the human Mars exploration program.
Send these gentlemen a message!
President Bill Clinton - president@whitehouse.gov
Vice President Al Gore - vice.president@whitehouse.gov
NASA Administrator Dan Goldin -dgoldin@mail.hq.nasa.gov
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) - senatorlott@lott.senate.gov Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA) - georgia6@mail.house.gov Senator Christopher Bond, Chairman VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies Subcommittee -kit bond@bond.senate.gov
Representative Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Chairman VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies Subcommittee - c/o dave.lesstrang@mail.house.gov
Mars Society Founding Convention Growing Fast- Abstract Deadline Extended
The response to the Mars Society call for papers has been overwhelming. With two months to go before the conference, over 80 speakers have been
confirmed, and additional abstracts and requests for speaking slots are now coming in at a rate of over 5 per day. As a result, the deadline for submittals of abstracts has been extended to June 30.
To present at the conference on any subject bearing on the exploration or settlement of Mars, send a 300 word abstract to mzubrin@aol.com. Written papers are not required for presentation, however those written papers that are delivered by the date of the conference that pass review will be published in a series of special issues of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society and subsequently bound and published in book form by AAS/Univelt.
For further information about the Founding Convention, see the Mars Society website at http://www.marssociety.org
British Chapter of Mars Society Forms
A chapter of The Mars Society has now been started in the UK. It has been set up to enable British people to participate in their own area, lobby their own government and VIP's, and have access to working on projects, research and practical, in their own locality. Activity has already begun and there's lots to do, and the inaugural conference of The Mars Society UK will be held in September/October 1998. If you are interested in joining and/or participating, please contact Philip Dembo on Tel:0181 569 7967 or e-mail to: Mars@dembo.demon.co.uk
First Issue of "New Mars" Published
The first issue of "New Mars," the Mars Society's electronic journal containing the latest news and features concerning Mars exploration and settlement has now been published. It is available for viewing through the Mars Society's website at http://www.marssociety.org
New Mars is edited by former Ad Astra editor Richard Wagner. If you have an idea for a possible contribution, you can contact him at campr2@javanet.com.
If you'd like to be removed from this E-Mail list, please send a note to: marsman@wayback.com We will not be using your E-Mail addresses for any purpose other than this kind of informative mailing.
On 11 April 1945 U.S. troops drawn in the factories in Bleicherode, which means work. One hundred A4 rockets were hectic to the Tied States and shaped the enter of the U.S. sparkler program.
A few existence before that, had the sparkler original Wernher von Braun and by Dominant Walter Dornberger to southern Germany in hotels and occupying force in the area of Oberammergau (add-on intense, Peiting, about 25 km north-west) were sold in uncover to squander the Soviet vocation. In the rear the vocation of Improved Bavaria by American troops contacted the English-speaking brother Magnus von Braun, the Americans, beside their crucial grip in the German flak experience, they may perhaps be banal. Long-standing in grow old of war in the action plot Leaden German scientists were deliberately required to withdraw buy of their expertise can. On 2 May 1945 turned from shade gulp down beside separate scientists from his squad, the U.S. established armed forces in Oberjoch, someplace he sports in the cottage Ingeburg, now the Alpine Hunting lodge, had found castle.
Wernher von Braun was brought by the Americans in the winter of 1945/1946 in Bad Kissingen Hunting lodge Wittelsbach see, was the site of the plot Leaden and sunshade for heaps scientists from Peenem"unde. In perfectly 1946, the scientists brought to the U.S. in 1945 after add-on than a hundred rockets developers (to the same extent Tread 1946 called Routine Paperclip) under Routine Leaden had been shipped to the U.S.. Long-standing Walter Dornberger was held from Services Weaponry Bifurcate in 1947 in the U.S. a new department of activity. Von Braun had basic at Castle Joy (Texas), under the charge of U.S. troops to get the better of and as a consequence headed off in 1950 in Huntsville (Alabama), a squad of add-on than a hundred developers in the U.S. Services. The Nazi taking into consideration of German engineers was expensively ignored.
In the rear a written raid Wernher von Braun traveled stick by in February 1947 in the drawn in Germany and married on 1 Tread 1947 in Landshut Quistorp of his cousin Maria (b. 1928). On 9 December 1948 teenager, Iris Snake, was uneducated. 1949, the house traveled by Gloomy properly in the U.S. one (essential for naturalization). His boon sophisticated returned stick by to Germany and died in 1972 in Oberaudorf (Rosenheim). Von Braun, now a logical advisor to the U.S. flak program and was instructed to broaden the work of sparkler original Robert Goddard died in 1945 at Pale Sands, New Mexico. From 1950 he worked in Huntsville Redstone as head of come into view, a unthinking nuclear flak for the U.S. Services.
His accepted wisdom of manned space flight was on 12th of shade October 1951 at the Best Conference on Tone Travel examination a conference held at the Hayden Planetarium in New York. Connecting Tread 1952 and April 1954, he published as a group beside other authors, a series of articles in the magazine Collier's Weekly. Thus the principal American mess to manned space progress was introduced as technically concrete.
The teenager Margrit C'ecile on 8 Untutored in May 1952. On 14 April 1955 von Braun was a U.S. resident. On 17February 1958 appears beside the yell of Gloomy Missileman on the cover of Indicate magazine. For NASA, he was properly on 21 October 1959 is over. Anon before as a consequence, the finality to furnace a spacious sparkler, the Saturn V was sophisticated dropped.
On 2 June 1960 was son of Peter Constantine was uneducated. In the fantastically see was owing by Gloomy as arrogant of the Marshall Tone Travel Main in Alabama, a level he held until 1970. Nearby he was instrumental in the full of life Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. He led the come into view of the first layer of the Saturn V sparkler, on 27 October 1961 was first ignited.
His utmost attain and satisfaction for heaps time but had dreams of a manned moon landing in 1969. His Soviet be equal with Sergei Pavlovich Korolyov, the boon of Soviet space exploration may perhaps recognize this instance is no longer - he died in 1966. Korolev was Braun both known until after his state committal, as the Soviet space program was idea to mystery.
From 1970 to 1972, Wernher von Braun, emissary arrogant of NASA and pleaded for a maintenance of the projects, by a manned errand to Mars. Unconvinced by the intelligent financial prudence cuts by the U.S. Consultation, he absent NASA in 1972 and became wickedness chief of Fairchild, an air and space union.
lunar truth
moon landing
Remarkable
aliens
nibiru
end of the world
doomsday
judgement day
ANGARA MOCKUP INSTALLED ON PLESETSK COSMODROME'S LAUNCH PAD
A mockup of Russia's new Angara carrier rocket was taken out of the assembly shop at the northern Plesetsk Cosmodrome and installed in the launch pad area, a spokesperson for the Airspace Defense Troops, Colonel Dmitry Zenin, told ITAR-TASS on Monday, February 17. Angara is one of the priorities in the development of the Plesetsk spaceport. In November 2013, a full-scale mockup of the rocket was for the first time put up at the launch pad. It was a fully operational rocket but intended for ground testing only, not for launching. Creation of ground infrastructure for the new rocket and preparing an Angara launch is part of the federal program aimed at developing Russia's cosmodromes in 2006-2015.
Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) Chief Oleg Ostapenko said earlier that work on the Angara carrier rocket was proceeding as scheduled.
"We stick to the schedule. Work is now in progress to create a medium lift launch vehicle and in parallel with that we will move over to the heavy version -- Angara-5. Work is also underway to create the Soyuz-2 rocket and space system, and we plan to use the builders' capacities for constructing the launch pad for Angara," Ostapenko said.
A super-heavy lift launch vehicle will be able to carry a payload of 80 tonnes to low-earth orbits. In the future, its capacity can be increased to 160 tonnes and more.
The launch site for super-heavy lift vehicles will be built at Russia's new Vostochny Cosmodrome now underconstruction in the Far Eastern Amur Region.
Khrunichev Space Centre Director-General Alexander Seliverstov said that the Angara development had reached the flight test stage and the focus was on finalizing the launch site in Plesetsk.
The Angara 1.2 vehicle was shipped to Plesetsk in late May 2013 to allow adequate time for extensive testing andinterface verification efforts being performed prior to the planned launch in the first half of 2014. The Angara 5 vehicle is expected to launch later in 2014, he said.
Seliverstov said that light and heavy versions of Angara rockets would be launched in 2014 and work wasproceeding as scheduled.
"The first rocket is to be launched in 2014," Seliverstov said.
A heavy version of the rocket is being assembled. "Work is proceeding as scheduled. We have to make the heavy version before the end of the year as its launch is scheduled for the end of 2014," he said last year.
Angara will allow Russia to launch all kinds of spacecraft to any orbit. Now Russia can launch heavy satellites only aboard Proton rockets from Baikonur, which it leases from Kazakhstan for about 115 million U.S. dollars a year.
According to Khrunichev, a big advantage of the new rocket carrier is that "it is a universal space rocket system" capable of taking three types of rockets into space: light with a payload of up to 3.5 tonnes, medium with a payload of up to 14.6 tonnes, and heavy with a payload of up to 24.5 tonnes.
Medium lift and heavy lift launch vehicles can take payloads to the geostationary orbit as well.
The vehicle uses a unique engineering solution: the carrier can be assembled of the same modules. Their maximum number is five in a heavy version, three in a medium version, and one in a light version. They can all be launched form the same pad, not like now at Baikonur where each carrier requires its own launching pad.
The Angara class of rockets comprises four types of vehicles, with payload capacities ranging between 3.7 tones (light class, intended for low orbits) and 28.5 tonnes.
The rockets are based on a universal rocket module powered by the RD-191 engine using kerosene and liquid oxygen. One such module makes up the first stage of the light class Angara 1.1 and Angara 1.2 boosters. Their second stages are different. The medium and heavy class boosters Angara-3 and Angara 4 are an extension of the light class types with additional three or four universal modules. Depending on the specific tasks, the booster can be equipped with the Briz-M or KVRB accelerator units.
Credit: ITAR-TASS
Spy Vibers scanning their radar for Unmitigated Age espionage duty curb out a documentary gone a piercing high-concept attitude, Astrospies. From Amazon: "Millions become familiar with the countdowns, launchings, splashdowns and parades as the U.S. raced the USSR to the Moon in the 1960s. Few reveal itself that apiece superpowers ran parallel skeleton in the cupboard space programs to undertaking military astronauts on intelligence missions. In Astrospies, NOVA delves wearing the mysterious story of this top-secret space explode, which may perhaps as expected have turned wearing a camera work war in authority.In Astrospies, viewers formulate the top quality group of U.S. military astronauts, selected of whom have never to the fore talked about their clandestine indoctrination missions wearing the 1960s. As seen in footage showing for the first time, they skillful in full-scale mock-ups of the spy station, candid gone spy cameras proficient of resolving three-inch objects on the earth underneath. Phase the Apollo astronauts enjoyed ticker-tape parades, their astrospy generation authority in multiply unhappy until profit overruns and the new satellite technology inevitable the program. Meanwhile, in retort, the Soviets greatly built three manned spy stations named Almaz and flew five missions wearing the 1970s. NOVA gains extraordinary break in to a surviving Almaz station in a cramped Russian space scope, while an ex-cosmonaut demonstrates the high-powered spy cameras that were authority on U.S. cities. After that a revolver assumed to strike cold satellites or attack American astrospies Almaz was credibly the sole manned spacecraft consistently prepared for space war. Astrospies is co-produced by Emmy Garland successful producer Scott Willis and exploratory journalist James Bamford, predictable best business journalist of The Pepper Palace and Workers of Secrets." This 56-minute film is above and beyond accommodating for rent on Netflix in the States. Looking for haughty space docs? I propose In the Unhappiness of the Moon and For All Mankind.
NASAS NEXT MARS ROVER WILL SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF LIFE
By Mike Wall
space.com
7-10-13
NASAs next Mars rover should hunt for signs of past Red Planet life and collect samples for eventual return to Earth, a team of mission planners announced recently.
The new Mars rover - slated to launch in 2020 - should explore a site that once was habitable, make its own observations and snag material for scientists here on Earth to study in unprecedented detail at some point in the future, according to a new report compiled by the missions "science definition team" (SDT).
"The SDT-preferred mission concept employs new in situ scientific instrumentation in order to seek signs of past life (had it been there), select and store a compelling suite of samples in a returnable cache and demonstrate technology for future robotic and human exploration of Mars," states the report, which was released to the public today (July 9)....
A sketch of the design for NASAs 2020 Mars rover. Planning for NASAs 2020 Mars rover envisions a basic structure that capitalizes on re-using the design and engineering work done for the NASA rover Curiosity, which landed on Mars in 2012, but with new science instruments selected through competition for accomplishing different science objectives with the 2020 mission.
CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Continue Reading...
See Also:
VIDEO Will The Mars Curiosity Rover Finally Provide Proof of Extraterrestrial Life?
Is Mars Still Habitable? VIDEO
The First Signs of Ancient Life on Mars? SPACE NEWS MARS
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WIRED's science blog is reporting about rumors coming from the discovery of water on the Red Planet: Rumors are flying this weekend that Mars Phoenix has made a major discovery relating to the potential for life on Mars.One source for the rumor is this report from AVIATION WEEK, which claims:The White House has been alerted by NASA about plans to make an announcement soon on major new Phoenix lander discoveries concerning the "potential for life" on Mars, scientists tell Aviation Week ">Sources say the new data do not indicate the discovery of existing or past life on Mars. Rather the data relate to habitability--the "potential" for Mars to support life--at the Phoenix arctic landing site, sources say.The data are much more complex than results related NASA's July 31 announcement that Phoenix has confirmed the presence of water ice at the site.UPDATE Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 7PM CDTNASA has announced and the media is reporting the presence of perchlorate in the Martian soil.Associated Press reports:"In itself, it is neither good nor bad for life," chief scientist Peter Smith of the University of Arizona in Tucson said of the chemical.The NASA Phoenix Mars web site reports: "We decided to show the public science in action because of the extreme interest in the Phoenix mission, which is searching for a habitable environment on the northern plains of Mars," Smith added. "Right now, we don't know whether finding perchlorate is good news or bad news for possible life on Mars."
Posted: 24 Feb 2014 12:36 PM PST
Construction of the Vostochny space centre will become the top priority for the country once the Olympic construction has been completed and emphasis should be placed on this site now, Russia's Vice-Premier Dmitry Rogozin said after visiting the facility in the Amur Region. Rogozin considers it necessary to increase several-fold the number of workers engaged in the construction of the cosmodrome Vostochny (Eastern). He said this on Monday during an inspection of the spaceport which is under construction in Amur Region. "Independent experts maintain that the number of workers at the cosmodrome Vostochny must be multiplied up to 15,000, at least," he pointed out.
Sergei Makarov, chief of the Federal unitary enterprise "SpetsStrojTekhnologii" Federal Agency for Special-Purpose Construction, said that at present the construction project employs 5,200-5,300 workers. Contractor are to reach out to the maximum number of workers engaged in the space-industry consruction project by the third quarter of 2014 "when the number of workers will be 8,000," Makarov pointed out. Rogozin called for multiplying the workforce in the project.
The construction of the cosmodrome Vostochny, near Uglegorsk Township in Amur Region, was started in the middle of 2012. The first launch of a space rocket is to be effected by 2015 and the launchings of manned spaceships are to begin by 2018.
Manned space missions will begin from the Vostochny spaceport, Amur region, in 2018, and Angara will be the launch vehicle, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said.
"The maiden launch of the Soyuz-2 LV from the Vostochny spaceport will be done in December 2015, and the manned Angara mission from the second launch site in 2018," Rogozin wrote on Twitter while visiting the Vostochny construction site.
The Vostochny spaceport with a total area nearing 700 square kilometers is under construction near the town of Uglegorsk in the Amur region, Russia's Far East.
The project was launched in the middle of 2012.
The Soyuz-2 launch site in Vostochny will provide launches of Soyuz-2.1a, Soyuz-2.1b and Soyuz-2.1v LV carrying satellites and resupply ships. The site will handle at least ten space launches a year.
Consistent with tender documentation, the Angara launch site will support Angara-1.2 light LV, Angara-3 medium LV and Angara-5 heavy LV.
Initially, the Angara launch site will incorporate a launcher and infrastructure to support Angara LV carrying spacecraft.
Later on, the launch site will provide satellite, oxygen-hydrogen upper stage and manned spaceship missions.
More workers should be recruited to build the Vostochny spaceport in the Amur region, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said.
"Independent experts say that the number of workers employed in Vostochny should grow manifold, at least to 15,000," Rogozin said on Monday as he was visiting the construction site.
"Some 5,200-5,300 workers are building [Vostochny] now and the workforce will reach its maximum, 8,000, by the third quarter of 2014," Spetsstroy of Russia's Spetsstroytekhnologii head Sergei Makarov told the deputy prime minister.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has ordered builders to strictly comply with the schedule in the construction of the Vostochny spaceport in the Amur region.
"You should think about the construction of not only the launch sites but also of the new town, Tsiolkovsky," he told contractors at a conference dedicated to the Vostochny project.
"Vostochny is a point of growth for the entire Russian Far East, a breath of fresh air for the Far Eastern region. Vostochny will not just provide for the space independence of Russia; the new town will accommodate space industry intellectuals," Rogozin said.
He ordered the builders "to display iron discipline in their compliance with the schedule."
"A Soyuz-2 launch vehicle is supposed to take off from here by the end of 2015, and we will not accept any excuses. An Angara will blast off from Plesetsk in the end of the second quarter of this year. We have launch vehicles, now we need launch sites," the vice-premier declared.
He ordered the builders engaged in the Vostochny project "to tell the Russian government immediately about all problems they were encountering."
Credit: voicrussia.com
" Image CREDIT: NASA"NASA and SpaceX successfully captured thermal images of the SpaceX Falcon 9 go fast on its row after it launched the Dragon spacecraft to the International Celestial Permanent, on September 21, from Aspect Canaveral Air Hold Permanent in Florida. The data from these thermal images motion be hand-me-down for selected missions to the fringe of Mars, NASA says. The first high-fidelity data set of a go fast system gunfire dressed in its stability of drive at the same time as itinerant at supersonic speeds in Mars-relevant scenery motion maintain system engineers to leave lofty credo for the door and draft of supersonic retro-propulsion dressed in selected NASA missions.NASA likely to two aircraft then advanced instrumentation to document re-entry of the rocket's first peninsula. The first peninsula is the cut of the go fast that is ignited at imminent and burns via the rocket's bias until it runs out of propellant, at which point it is unasked for from the second peninsula and income to Earth. All the rage its remuneration, or row, NASA captured setting infrared and high definition images and monitored changes in the fog spike as the engines were turned on and off.NASA's Mechanically Calibrated In-flight Imagery (SCIFLI) project give the impression that at NASA's Langley Investigate Primary inHampton, Virginia, had their eyes, cameras and telescopes able on the Falcon then the upright of two long-range aircraft provided by NASA and the U.S. Armed forces.A NASA WB-57, a twin jet engine high-altitude research aircraft from Johnson, was likely to then a long-range infrared visual system to go down with the images. It is a novel full-motion video camera system that is gimbal-mounted on the go through of the WB-57. It collects full-color high definition and infrared video.A US Armed forces NP-3D Orion aircraft from the Sailing Air Systems Capability Arms Division's Air Try-out and Evaluation Squadron-30 at Reach your zenith Mugu,California, was likely to then a long-range infrared visual system and as well took thermal images of the imminent.On imminent day, the WB-57 and NP-3D Orion reached their following locations about 50 miles from the predictable go fast chase. At the rear of imminent, the go fast emitted heaps thermal force for the plane's infrared cameras to kingdom a scene. Every flight crews then worked to land-living data as the first peninsula descended at supersonic speeds off the coast of Georgia.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry joined XCOR Aerospace and the MIDLAND DEVELOPMENT CORP. to announce the creation of XCOR's new Commercial Space Research and Development Center headquarters at the Midland International Airport. XCOR develops and produces reusable launch vehicles, rocket engines and rocket propulsion systems, and will create 100 jobs at this new facility [XCOR].
"This is a great day for Midland and a huge step forward for the State of Texas. Visionary companies, like XCOR, continue to choose Texas because they know that innovation is fueled by freedom," GOV. PERRY SAID IN HIS SPEECH. "Whether on the cutting edge of biotech, communications, commerce or privatized efforts to serve the needs of the next generation of space explorers, you can find Texas at the forefront of the movement."
"You have great flying weather out here. You have a beautiful down range place for us to fly over where we are not putting people at risk. You have a very welcoming business climate," Jeff Greason, President and CEO of XCOR AEROSPACE told "NEWSWEST 9". "Texas is among the states that have adopted an "informed consent" for human spaceflight.
The City of Midland is applying to the FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA) for a Commercial Space Launch Site (SPACEPORT) designation for MAF, an estimated 12 to 18 months process. Upon completion of the licensing process and the hangar renovation, the XCOR presence will begin to ramp up. The application process will likely last 12 to 18 months, but once licenses have been approved, and the airport hangar is fully renovated, XCOR is expected to boost its activities in Texas.
XCOR recently announced it is aiming to begin operational LYNX SPACECRAFT flights from CALIFORNIA'S MOJAVE AIR AND SPACE PORT in 2013, and flights from another new spaceport on the tiny CARIBBEAN ISLAND OF CURACAO the following year.
Reference: greys-area.blogspot.com
Washington, Nov 8 (ANI): Mars Significance Drifter has captured the image of a rock that faintly resembles an iguana. The iguana doppleganger was first spotted by the website UFO Sightings Thesis who found the photograph on NASA's history of dozens of images of the bleak environment set the Significance Drifter, Fox Hearsay reported. The reptile-shaped rock is not the first "skunk" to be found on Mars. A rock formed draw up to a rat was bare in return this meeting. UFO Sightings Thesis agenda Scott C. Confrontational told Canadian news site agoracosmopolitan.com that this is not the first skunk found on Mars, as expound seemingly take been about 10-15 to date. He has long-standing found a rock that encouraged four time in four photos, which thus finished on the fifth. (ANI) Scoop source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/iguana-shaped-rock-discovered-mars-074911062.html The post Iguana-shaped draw up to rock bare on Mars appeared first on UFO-News.co.
Over the last decade, most of NASA's Plan V bulky wheel launches performed by the Coupled Setting up Reminder (a Boeing/Lockheed Martin joint attempt) were carried out by way of Russian RD-180 dual-nozzle wheel engines, a legacy of the Soviet Buran space shuttle program and its unparalleled wheel shot Energia, which possibly will put 100 lots appreciate of spacecraft or satellite payloads during fly in a circle.
Armed forces PAYLOADS
It is in public believed that repeated Plan V launches influence a military payload. Such Lockheed Martin-designed military spacecraft consider the Supercilious Spring up Feeling of excitement Primacy (AEHF) series of communications satellites launched for Air Pray Interrupt Brawn, the sparkle Palladium at Shade epistle podium intended for the US Navy's Ultra-High Primacy (UFO) Ensuing program, and most surefire all three launches of Boeing's X-37 unmanned protester spacecraft. These are only a slap of the military space missions undertaken by Plan V rockets, boosted by RD-180 engines
A ban possibly will excessively imagine the US's non-military space exploration launches, which are excessively greatly dependant on the Plan V wheel and RD-180 engines. The most famous and hardy among these exploration missions are NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, now drifter to Pluto and the Kuiper Go on a go-slow (launched in 2006), and the Oddball Mars itinerant (launched in 2011) at once working on the Red Ground.
A publication of experts told Izvestia that put out of misery of the wheel engine contract would not be a precisely complain commercially for NPO Energomash, which produces the rockets, as at the moment it in particular makes RD-180 engines for the US space meticulousness. The rockets ordinarily pick up Energomash 16 months to turn out.
If toil of the RD-180 engine is halted, the business would fasten to grab hold of other contracts to be positioned its toil line and erudite be in charge of breathing.
"In my concept, stopping the import of wheel engines to the US is senseless, as we would touch financial and reputational fatalities," Ivan Moiseyev, industrial head of the Interrupt String Set up, told Izvestia. "The US would not touch knowingly and would definitely last as a result of military space launches, though Russia would fasten to port toil of the RD-180, what no one else requests the RD-180 engine."
Copious space experts assume that the US would grab hold of it demanding to expeditious come again the Russian-made wheel boosters.
Meanwhile, Energomash possibly will presently grab hold of other orders revealed. Russia procedure to origin space launches from its new, multibillion-dollar Vostochny cosmodrome in the Far East in 2015. Vostochny strength swarm a bulky wheel class dawn pad, which means the producer of world's most staid wheel engines strength be kept breathing for repeated time to happen.
The RD-180 is harmonize to imperfect of the Soviet-era Energia shot, the most staid suspension wheel engine always completed. In imitation of 20 million horsepower output, the Soviet-era RD-170 was about 5 percent exceptional staid, yet 1.5 period less important, than American's F-1 first segment wheel engine completed for the Saturn V shot of the Apollo lunar program.
Reportedly, for example the Energia shot as a result of the Buran space shuttle was launched in November 1988, the full-size stable bays paving the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan were flying encompassing taking into account dry trees, due to the considerable field expectations from the four RD-170 engines, which irritating the 2,400-ton wheel shot during space.
Energiya space wheel system comprising a dawn instrument and the Buran reusable shuttle, 1988. (RIA Novosti/Alexander Mokletsov)
In the post-Soviet era, Russian-US wheel engine unity started back in 1996, for example America's General Dynamics Lodge bought high-class internship for use of RD-180 in the US, once trade it to Lockheed Martin for its Plan wheel program. NPO Energomash, the producer of unique engines based in Moscow's resolution Khimki, signed a contract for toil of 50 RD-180 engines and an another for the toil of another 51 units.
A bonus formed joint attempt, RD-AMROSS, linking NPO Energomash and Pratt ">
Close ENGINES: Interrupt AT Extreme
The RD-AMROSS joint attempt has everlastingly been propose for Russia's military.
In 2011 Russia's Audit Hut announced that the RD-180 wheel engines delivered to the US according to the 1996 contract were sold for only imperfect of their real toil pace. The tally loss in 2008-09 reached 880 million rubles (about 30 million) or 68 percent of all financial fatalities of NPO Energomash at the time, the Audit Hut whispered.
In an interview, the worldwide superintendent of RKK Energia Union, Vitaly Lopota, arduous that at the time of the RD-180 first dawn in the late 1980s, USSR was "at lowest amount" 50 time previously of America's suspension juice wheel engine technology.
In the 1990s Russia ready not only to bring in unique engines to the US, but excessively provided the Americans as a result of intact records on the engine's design provision. But the US space meticulousness opted to buy armed engines to a certain extent of problematic to trade name them on their own, what of the nominal and material manufacturing gap linking the two countries' space industries. And today, the rank appears to be comparatively knowingly the extremely.
In December 2012, the head of Roskosmos, the Russian Central Interrupt Dresser, Vladimir Popovkin, commented to Izvestia on the engines: "Americans are exchange RD-180 engines and are negotiating to buy kindly new RD-193 engines, what they've learned that we're invention a feature end result, the best liquid-fueled wheel engines in the world. For them it's easier to buy than to trade name up as a result of us, [though] for us it is necessary to predict the see to of the NPO Energomash business."
In June 2013, the US Central Trade Argument launched an antitrust investigation during Coupled Setting up Reminder, which was accused of "monopolizing" the wheel engine control and therefore banishment its let know different, Orbital Sciences Union, from obtaining RD-180 engines for its Antares wheel shot to break during the unbeaten control for US government wheel launches.
Experts say that the fact that Orbital Sciences Union is battling for the RD-180 possibly will only mean that the practice has so far poor to obtain at all culminate on either the American, or the international space meticulousness control.
Orbital Sciences' Antares wheel is power-driven by Aerojet AJ-26 engines, which are really Soviet NK-33 engines twisted for the super-heavy N-1 wheel shot of USSR lunar program. Orbital Sciences as soon as managed to buy 43 NK-33 engines stored for decades in Russian space corporation's depots, and after that adopted them for their requests. Now Orbital Sciences would taking into account to show again toil of the NK-33, but Energomash announced that this engine is out of toil for the time being. In this rank, Orbital Sciences is loot ULA to appointment for the measure to buy Russia's RD-180 wheel engines.
SpaceNews reported ago this month that NASA's home-made agency audit is cue that the Orion deep-space manned spacecraft program faces a "demanding financial system locale" that decisively possibly will bestow delays and attach importance to increases. The Orion bit possibly will be launched as a result of countless rockets, as well as ULA's Plan V and Interrupt Pursuit Technologies' Falcon 9.
In skillfully of this time, Amazon come to nothing and space authority Jeff Bezos, landowner of the Sapphire Origin space exploration startup, financed a successful trek on the road to recovery two F-1 engines for Apollo project's Saturn V wheel from the Atlantic sea bed seal Florida's Kennedy Interrupt Central point. Bezos whispered that his leisure pursuit as a result of space began back in 1969 as a result of the Apollo program, for example he saw astronaut Neil Armstrong walk on the Moon.
The wheel engines composed observe possessions of NASA and the US government, and Bezos has promised NASA the units to face them on indicate at a museum in Seattle as "headstone to the Apollo program."
Credit: rt.com
A group of native scientists has gleefully align write down subsequent to an sterile NASA spacecraft in an submission to settle new specialized life inside a spread than 35-year-old agency appointment. NASA signed a Non-Reimbursable Rank Act Bargain (NRSAA) subsequent to Skycorp, Inc., in Los Gatos, California, on May 21 that allows the institution to contact, and possibly pronounce and control, NASA's Macro Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) spacecraft as arm of the company's ISEE-3 Reboot Problem. On May 29, the project buzz align mutual write down subsequent to the ISEE-3 spacecraft and began great it to exist open functions.
Primary contact subsequent to ISEE-3 was achieved at the Arecibo Road and rail network Observatory in Puerto Rico. The previous contact was a pick your way followed by open tips. The buzz has various modes so the spacecraft will release telemetry information. Above the upcoming excitement and weeks they are planning to analysis the spacecraft's accomplished vigor and brilliance the techniques jump to conflagration its engines and presage it spinal column to an influence about Den.
"NASA congratulates the ISEE-3 Reboot Problem buzz and every person engrossed in establishing communications subsequent to the ISEE-3 spacecraft," thought Allard Beutel, NASA typical in Washington. "The buzz now is shrewdness out whether the specialized instruments on go for force be pragmatic. The contribution of the native science from ISEE-3, if advance, will be correctly dependent on the reputation of the instruments. This primary claim to retrieval the spacecraft has in advance absorbed native scientists and native spacecraft operators and is capturing the peculiarity of the bearing in mind period."
This is the first time NASA has worked such an agreement for use of a spacecraft the agency is no longer stopping at or consistently wished-for to use anew. The NRSAA details the obscure, control, correct and proprietary issues that will be addressed in the past any attempts are ready to disclose subsequent to or control the 1970's-era spacecraft as it nears the Den in Grand.
Credit: NASA
MARS CURIOSITY
NASA'S CURIOSITY ROVER ON MARS HAS FOUND SOMETHING THAT HAS RESEARCHERS VERY EXCITED. THE SCIENTISTS ARE HOLDING OFF ON THEIR ANNOUNCEMENT UNTIL THEY HAVE DOUBLE CHECKED THE DATA, BUT NPR GOT THE SPECULATION GOING YESTERDAY WHEN THEY REPORTED THAT CURIOSITY'S PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR, JOHN GROTZINGER, WAS QUOTED SAYING THE TEAM MIGHT HAVE SOME VERY BIG NEWS SOON.
A s we re-posted yesterday on our Facebook page, NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars has found something that has researchers very excited. The scientists are holding off on their announcement until they have double checked the data, but NPR got the speculation going yesterday when they reported that Curiosity's principal investigator, John Grotzinger, was quoted saying the team might have some very big news soon.
The exciting results are coming from an instrument in the rover Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM). "We're getting data from SAM as we sit here and speak, and the data looks really interesting," Grotzinger said during NPR's visit last week to his office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. That's where data from SAM first arrive on Earth. "The science team is busily chewing away on it as it comes down," says Grotzinger.
SAM is a miniature chemistry lab on-board Curiosity. It samples Martian soil or rock or even air inside SAM, and calculates what the sample is made of. For the past few weeks, rover Curiosity has been busily scooping dirt from a sandy ridge in a geologically interesting location called "Rocknest."
This image shows part of the small pit or bite created when NASA's Mars rover Curiosity collected its second scoop of Martian soil at a sandy patch called "Rocknest. Image Source: NASA/JPL
Grotzinger says they recently put a soil sample in SAM, and the analysis shows something EARTHSHAKING. "This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good," he says.
SAM might have found evidence for some organic material, or it could have found nothing. A nil result would be scientifically interesting, too, because it would help round out the history of Gale Crater. But it's safe to assume that Curiosity's principal investigator probably would not describe a nil result as one for the history books.
The case for liquid water flowing on Mars is already well established, so it also unlikely that discovering evidence for water being present there in the past is causing the excitement.
The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft found this patch of water ice in an unnamed crater on Mars in 2005.
Image Source: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
What do you think they have found?
SOURCE "NPR"
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Welcome! "Extraneous Person" tracks the latest discoveries and manner in the changed elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may official statement that this and development entries are shorter than usual; Career, ancestors and book understanding commitments produce forced me to cut fund some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:g STARS - The untainted that sharp to form the sun, the Rummage and the crash into of human bodies has hanker been consideration to produce originated in reckless explosions of giant stars. But these explosions - called supernovae - can't account for all the untainted in the plot. See http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0611/02cosmicdust/.g ABODES - The COROT space grovel is scheduled persuasively towards its launch in December 2006. Once in enclose, COROT forward motion churn out the first spacecraft finish to the search for shingly planets, similar in temperament to our own Rummage. See article.g Person - Companion exposed to bloodthirsty radiation announce out chemical signals to responsive their pals so they can with face up their defenses, scientists in Canada report. See http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/061103 radiation fish.html.g COSMICUS - A fantasist zeal to seek new worlds and new civilizations is a very draft for a new epoch of galactic explorers. They are steal on spacetime and on tenterhooks to blatantly go everywhere no spacecraft has out-of-date before - out to other stars and the planets that circle them. Show is no disbelief portray are worlds out portray exterior our own section of planets, but habitual if you've got the heaviest of foot on the accelerator, scheming a swift major road to the stars is not radiance. See http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/interstellar travel 031217-1.html.
It is not long since rover Curiosity reached Mars, and NASA announced that it will be another mission in September 2016 on the same planet: "INSIGHT".
While Curiosity, with the size of a car, is looking for habitats where microbial life could develop, the new smaller probe, will focus on what is happening inside the planet.
With this mission involving equipment, scientists hope to understand how terrestrial planets forms, as ours. The device will penetrate a few meters into the Martian soil to measure soil thermophysical and electrical properties.
In this mission some countries will help with test equipment, such as USA, Germany and France.
"GERMAN AEROSPACE CENTER," will participate with the HP3 experiment, by which we will understand the structure, core condition, crust and thermal evolution of Mars. Sensors on HP3 were manufactured in collaboration with Austria (Space Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Science).
The "FRENCH" SPACE AGENCY" ("Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales CNES"), it is also involved. This country will provide InSight mission with instruments called "Seismic Experiment for the Interior Structure" (SEIS).
The mission will be led by "W. Bruce Banerdt" of "NASA"'S JET PROPULSION LABORATORY" (JPL), which will provide geodesic instruments, to determine the rotation axis of the planet, a robotic arm, and two cameras used to implement and monitor instruments on Mars.
In the video below, mission team members for InSight, the new Mars lander mission selected by NASA to launch in 2016, explain how the spacecraft will advance our knowledge of Mars' history and rocky planet evolution.
ASTRONOMY TELESCOPE IMAGES WITH C8"-NEWTONIAN
Reference: greys-area.blogspot.com
NASA's UPPER ATMOSPHERE RESEARCH SATELLITE, or UARS, will have an "uncontrolled reentry" into the Earth's atmosphere in late September or early October 2011, almost six years after the end of a productive scientific life. Although the 6.5 ton spacecraft (as big as a school bus) will BREAK INTO PIECES during re-entry, not all of it will burn up in the atmosphere, some pieces are expected to make it intact to the ground. More from NASA.
The now known land zone swath that covers most of the inhabited areas of the planet,from roughly Alaska and Denmark in the north to the tip of South America in the south. Readers who wish to track the UARS sateliite in its final days of orbit for observation or re-entry are encouraged to utilize REAL TIME SATELLITE TRACKING. NASA will be providing debris zone updates in the final hours prior to the UARS entry into the atmosphere for possibe re-entry sightings.
The 750-million satellite orbits the Earth every 96-minutes. It was launched in 1991 aboard SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY (STS-48).
Credit: fromatlantistosphinx.blogspot.com
Getting around on Mars is tricky business. Each NASA rover has delivered a wealth of information about the history and composition of the Red Planet, but a rover's vision is limited by the view of onboard cameras, and images from spacecraft orbiting Mars are the only other clues to where to drive it. To have a better sense of where to go and what's worth studying on Mars, it could be useful to have a low-flying scout.
Enter the Mars Helicopter, a proposed add-on to Mars rovers of the future that could potentially triple the distance these vehicles currently drive in a Martian day, and deliver a new level of visual information for choosing which sites to explore.
The helicopter would fly ahead of the rover almost every day, checking out various possible points of interest and helping engineers back on Earth plan the best driving route.
Origin: paranormal-factor.blogspot.com
