ATLANTA -- The sun rises over the Australian outback and over an isolated desert.
The area marks the location for the likely discovery of several historic space rocks which survived the plunge through earth's atmosphere long ago.
A real treasure to geologists and astronomers alike, these rocks are known as meteorites and they hold the clues into the creation of our universe several billion years ago.
As the wind gusts over the untouched desert, the whirl of metal detectors grows stronger as two long time meteorite experts patiently search for one space rock which broke apart as it impacted earth's southern hemisphere decades ago.
As professional meteorite hunters Geoffrey Natkin and Steve Arnold detect several possible iron rich stony materials buried deep below, and begin to dig towards their treasure. The internal makeup of each rock will give scientists a look into what new minerals are out there.
Their findings will also rewrite what scientists had believed happened during
the impact, not only of our solar system but our universe.
These meteorite men will spend the next several days researching the region until they have exhausted their search for the debris from a single meteorite.
Steve and Geoff are the Meteorite Men, an award winning show on The Science Channel which continues to draw a huge following across the globe.
Both men share host duties of the entertaining weekly television show as they investigate the world's known impact sites.
This aerospace reporter spent the day being schooled by the
wise-cracking duo as they toured and spoke with guests at the Tellus
Science Museum near Atlanta.
My first topic went directly to the famous Russian meteorite on February 15, as I asked the pair to share their thoughts on the widely video recorded shock wave and impact at Chelyabinsk.
"Biggest thing ever!", Geoff said with a laugh.
Steve immediately steps in, "We really don't know how big it is until all the snow melts and how much gets picked up. This one didn't make any craters and there are tens of thousands of pieces."
Steve then hinted that "there's a slight chance there could be something television related with us going over there to (Chelyabinsk)."
Geoff found a strong interest in the historic value the recent meteorite gave the planet, "Major firsts, Chelyabinsk, first time there's ever been major damage to modern civilization documented by a meteorite fall. This is serious damage to modern human infrastructure by a meteorite."
In his strong British tone, Geoff explained how serious Chelyabinsk could have been, "It's time for the world to wake up and take the threat of near earth objects seriously. This should be a wake up call for the whole world. (Chelyabinsk) was nothing, that was a pin drop compared to what could happen, and if the fall had come in at a slightly different angle and all those meteorites had smashed into all those buildings, we could have seen ten times the injuries."
Steve added even stronger words, "If that rock was an iron, same size but iron, it would have killed everybody within five kilometers, and it would have burned like a hundred miles of forest. It is a very serious situation."
Geoff recently worked with NASA Edge television show about Near Earth Objects as they filmed an episode at the famous Meteor Crater in Arizona.
"If you need any more of a warning about what NEO's can do, stand on the rim of Meteor Crater and you will go, 'Yes, we should do something about this problem'," Geoff said with a nod.
Geoffrey is also owner of Aerolite Meteorites, a popular Internet
business specializing in sales of rare and colorful meteorites. Steve,
meanwhile, is owner of a retail business near his Huntsville, Arkansas
home known as Arnold Meteorites.
As Meteorite Men's popularity grows with new fans, the show is facing it's final season unless it's hosts can discover a new format.
"We can't continue to do the show exactly the way it's been done," Geoff explains. "If we want to make new shows, we need to reboot it. We need to look at some new ideas perhaps we could do more historic stories and meteorite legends, and maybe investigate meteorite craters."
"In the format that everyone's been used too, it's reached the end of it's limit," Steve adds.
As viewers tune in for the funny banter and cool location shoots, the show has also led to the discovery of unknown space rocks in the homes of several viewers. The show continues to educate on just how to look for and recognize a meteorite.
"Yes, we love the adventure, we love the hunt, but we also love the science", Geoff states of his multi season show. "We hope we've contributed something positive to the science of meteoritics."
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science and technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
Friday, April 26, 2013
Friday, March 01, 2013
Dragon supply craft's thruster issues delay it's space station arrival
Falcon 9 lifts-off on Friday from America's Space Coast. photo: SpaceX
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A private spacecraft en route to resupply the International Space Station experienced the failure of several thrusters a minute after arriving on orbit leaving it's future uncertain.
Space Exploration Technologies Inc. or SpaceX CEO Elon Musk stated that blockage of oxidizer pressurization on the Dragon supply craft's thrusters is "the preliminary guess" of what caused the thrusters to fail off.
"Dragon is in orbit and is stable," SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell confirmed at the start of a mid-afternoon news conference on Friday.
By 4:00 p.m. EST on Friday, thrusters on pods 1 thru 4 were back online with more tests ahead. There are five thrusters on pod 1 and four thrusters on pod 4. Pod's 2 and 3 each carry four thrusters.
However, Saturday morning's planned grapple by space station astronauts has been delayed until no earlier than Sunday morning for now.
Both NASA and SpaceX deferred to comment on exactly when it will be safe for Dragon to make it's approach to the space station.
NASA did state that they can allow Dragon to approach for berthing up until around March 13. After the thirteenth, the station's attention will turn toward the departure of three of the space lab's six crew members on March 15. The next available Dragon approach would then be allowed after March 17.
Musk added that Dragon could stay in orbit for several months, however he would not keep the craft aloft that long. Musk said he would keep Dragon in orbit for one month to support berthing.
Dragon is carrying over 1200 pounds of oxygen, food, fuel and science experiments which it will deliver following docking.
The Dragon supply craft arrived into an elliptical orbit of 123 x 199 miles high orbit at 10:20 a.m. EST on Friday, ten minutes after lift-off from Cape Canaveral.
"The Falcon 9 rocket performed it's job super well," Musk confirmed.
Once on orbit, solar array deployment was then delayed when the thrusters issue developed.
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
Commercial cargo craft Dragon launches to Space Station
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A privately owned cargo craft destined to resupply the International Space Station with new science experiments and supplies lifted-off from America's Space Coast on Friday.
The flight by Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX) marks it's second operational resupply flight by a commercial company, and will repeat the company's first flight last October in which saw their unmanned craft captured by the station's robotic arm for docking.
On the same day as a major government spending cuts began, NASA associate administrator Lori Garver today applauded the private sector's venture into space exploration moments before launch.
As the countdown ticked closer to zero, the weather forecast improved and the Falcon 9 rocket was pressurized for flight.
The 157-foot Falcon 9 launched into the cloudy skies over Cape Canaveral at 10:10:13 a.m. EST, to begin it's twenty-hour sprint to earth's orbital outpost in space.
This flight will also mark the quickest time in which America has sent a spacecraft to the orbiting laboratory. Currently, Russia has developed a flight plan which allows their Progress M cargo craft to arrive at the complex just six hours after launch.
Powered by nine Merlin engines, the Falcon 9 soared out over the Atlantic waters just as the space station passed 250 miles high over the southern tip of Florida.
Three minutes later, the engines were shutdown and the first stage separated followed seconds later by the protective payload fairing.
The second stage's engines quickly took over pushing the Dragon module higher and faster.
The resupply craft was then let go from the second stage ten minutes after lift-off.
However, one minute later, SpaceX controllers in Hawthorne, California delayed the deployment of the craft's twin solar arrays when three of four thruster pods which are used to move around.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk later Tweeted that the solar arrays were successfully deployed before noon after a second thruster pod became active.
The thruster issue has forced a delay in Dragon's ability to reach the outpost early on Saturday.
Dragon is loaded with over 1200 pounds of oxygen, fuel, food and experiments which it will deliver following docking on Saturday, including a special package of California grown apples, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said on Thursday.
On Saturday, space station astronauts Kevin Ford and Thomas Marshburn will use the station's 57-foot Canadarm 2 to reach out and snag the arriving cargo craft.
Two hours later, flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center near Houston will slowly guide the craft over for it's docking to the station's Harmony node.
Dragon is the only unmanned supply craft in the world to have a heat shield and parachutes which allows NASA to return real time science experiments back to earth safely.
Twenty-five days following it's launch, Dragon will be unberthed and will soar towards a same day splashdown in the Pacific Ocean some 200 miles off the coast of Baja California.
CRS 3 is planned for late-Fall of this year, Gwynne Shotwell stated on Thursday, and it will fly atop an upgraded Falcon 9.
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
The flight by Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX) marks it's second operational resupply flight by a commercial company, and will repeat the company's first flight last October in which saw their unmanned craft captured by the station's robotic arm for docking.
On the same day as a major government spending cuts began, NASA associate administrator Lori Garver today applauded the private sector's venture into space exploration moments before launch.
As the countdown ticked closer to zero, the weather forecast improved and the Falcon 9 rocket was pressurized for flight.
The 157-foot Falcon 9 launched into the cloudy skies over Cape Canaveral at 10:10:13 a.m. EST, to begin it's twenty-hour sprint to earth's orbital outpost in space.
This flight will also mark the quickest time in which America has sent a spacecraft to the orbiting laboratory. Currently, Russia has developed a flight plan which allows their Progress M cargo craft to arrive at the complex just six hours after launch.
Powered by nine Merlin engines, the Falcon 9 soared out over the Atlantic waters just as the space station passed 250 miles high over the southern tip of Florida.
Three minutes later, the engines were shutdown and the first stage separated followed seconds later by the protective payload fairing.
The second stage's engines quickly took over pushing the Dragon module higher and faster.
The resupply craft was then let go from the second stage ten minutes after lift-off.
However, one minute later, SpaceX controllers in Hawthorne, California delayed the deployment of the craft's twin solar arrays when three of four thruster pods which are used to move around.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk later Tweeted that the solar arrays were successfully deployed before noon after a second thruster pod became active.
The thruster issue has forced a delay in Dragon's ability to reach the outpost early on Saturday.
Dragon is loaded with over 1200 pounds of oxygen, fuel, food and experiments which it will deliver following docking on Saturday, including a special package of California grown apples, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said on Thursday.
On Saturday, space station astronauts Kevin Ford and Thomas Marshburn will use the station's 57-foot Canadarm 2 to reach out and snag the arriving cargo craft.
Two hours later, flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center near Houston will slowly guide the craft over for it's docking to the station's Harmony node.
Dragon is the only unmanned supply craft in the world to have a heat shield and parachutes which allows NASA to return real time science experiments back to earth safely.
Twenty-five days following it's launch, Dragon will be unberthed and will soar towards a same day splashdown in the Pacific Ocean some 200 miles off the coast of Baja California.
CRS 3 is planned for late-Fall of this year, Gwynne Shotwell stated on Thursday, and it will fly atop an upgraded Falcon 9.
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
Asteroid 2012 DA14 to break across earth's orbital plane
ATLANTA -- A space rock the size of half the distance of a football field is closing in on earth and will make one of the closest flyby's of our planet in recent history.
Asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass very close to earth on Friday, soaring to within 17,200 miles of the surface, as it speeds across our solar system.
"There is no chance of this object hitting the earth," notes chief astronomer David Dundee of the Tellus Science Museum near Atlanta. "If it were to hit the earth, it would flatten an area 750 miles in diameter."
NASA is calling this space encounter "a close shave".
Most of the communications and weather satellites are located in an orbit 22,236 miles above the planet. DA14 will pass much lower than that.
"This is a record setting close approach," states Donald Yeomans, a project manager at NASA's Near Earth Object Observation Program. "The odds of an impact with a satellite are extremely remote."
NASA adds that the International Space Station and it's crew of six will not be any danger as it orbits 250 miles above earth.
Closest approach on Friday is estimated to be 2:24 p.m. EST, as it soars from the south pole and up over the Indian Ocean at a speed of 17,450 m.p.h.
Yeomans said the asteroid lives in an orbit around the Sun similar to that of earth.
Little is known about DA14 and as it hurtles through earth's orbital plane NASA plans to record every measure of it.
Telescopes and radar antennas will be trained on the asteroid for several days, recording it's chemical make-up, to see if it rotates, and to measure it's size and true speed, Dundee adds.
DA14 is believed to be the last asteroid of it's size to swing by earth for the next thirty years.
"There is suspicion that it is this type of asteroid may hold water," Dundee added.
Due to the time of approach, sky watchers in North America will not be able to view the object due to daylight conditions.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville will track the DA14's flight with a camera mounted on a telescope. Viewers can visit Marshall's UStream page beginning at 9:00 p.m. EST, for a three hour live stream event.
(Charles Atkeison covers science and technology for Examiner.com. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
Asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass very close to earth on Friday, soaring to within 17,200 miles of the surface, as it speeds across our solar system.
"There is no chance of this object hitting the earth," notes chief astronomer David Dundee of the Tellus Science Museum near Atlanta. "If it were to hit the earth, it would flatten an area 750 miles in diameter."
NASA is calling this space encounter "a close shave".
Most of the communications and weather satellites are located in an orbit 22,236 miles above the planet. DA14 will pass much lower than that.
"This is a record setting close approach," states Donald Yeomans, a project manager at NASA's Near Earth Object Observation Program. "The odds of an impact with a satellite are extremely remote."
NASA adds that the International Space Station and it's crew of six will not be any danger as it orbits 250 miles above earth.
Closest approach on Friday is estimated to be 2:24 p.m. EST, as it soars from the south pole and up over the Indian Ocean at a speed of 17,450 m.p.h.
Yeomans said the asteroid lives in an orbit around the Sun similar to that of earth.
Little is known about DA14 and as it hurtles through earth's orbital plane NASA plans to record every measure of it.
Telescopes and radar antennas will be trained on the asteroid for several days, recording it's chemical make-up, to see if it rotates, and to measure it's size and true speed, Dundee adds.
DA14 is believed to be the last asteroid of it's size to swing by earth for the next thirty years.
"There is suspicion that it is this type of asteroid may hold water," Dundee added.
Due to the time of approach, sky watchers in North America will not be able to view the object due to daylight conditions.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville will track the DA14's flight with a camera mounted on a telescope. Viewers can visit Marshall's UStream page beginning at 9:00 p.m. EST, for a three hour live stream event.
(Charles Atkeison covers science and technology for Examiner.com. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
Monday, December 17, 2012
Chamblee graduate to begin five month stay in space Wednesday
ATLANTA -- A graduate from Henderson High School in Chamblee will return to the International Space Station on Wednesday to begin five months of living and working 260 miles above earth.
NASA astronaut and Henderson's class of 1978 graduate Thomas Marshburn will be making his second voyage to the orbiting outpost when he lifts-off atop a Russian rocket from the deserts of western Kazakhstan.
Two days later, he and two fellow crew members will dock their Soyuz spacecraft to a Russian module to begin their long duration stay in space.
Dr. Marshburn is only the second Henderson High student to work aboard the space station.
In 2008, Henderson's class of 1983 grad Col. Eric Boe visited the orbital complex for two weeks on a resupply mission aboard shuttle Endeavour. Boe's flight preceded Marshburn's by eight months.
Boe then returned to the outpost in 2011 as the last person to pilot shuttle Discovery as she made her final flight.
"We moved to Atlanta, my father's work called us to Atlanta, Georgia, so I was raised there near the big city," Dr. Marshburn recalled recently while at the Johnson Space Center near Houston. "We had some family property, a farm in north Georgia, spent a lot of time there fixing fences and spending a lot of time outdoors."
Known as Tommy to friends and his three brothers and three sisters, Dr. Marshburn first thought about space flight while at Henderson High.
"It was in high school that I thought the space program is interesting to me," he noted. "And it was specifically the space program that got me into a technical field and I just switch completely. I concentrated on math, science and fell in love with the physics classes."
Marshburn, Chris Hadfield and Roman Romanenko will lift-off on December 19 at 7:12 a.m. EST, an hour before the first bell rings to begin a new class day at Henderson High School.
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
NASA astronaut and Henderson's class of 1978 graduate Thomas Marshburn will be making his second voyage to the orbiting outpost when he lifts-off atop a Russian rocket from the deserts of western Kazakhstan.
Two days later, he and two fellow crew members will dock their Soyuz spacecraft to a Russian module to begin their long duration stay in space.
Dr. Marshburn is only the second Henderson High student to work aboard the space station.
In 2008, Henderson's class of 1983 grad Col. Eric Boe visited the orbital complex for two weeks on a resupply mission aboard shuttle Endeavour. Boe's flight preceded Marshburn's by eight months.
Boe then returned to the outpost in 2011 as the last person to pilot shuttle Discovery as she made her final flight.
"We moved to Atlanta, my father's work called us to Atlanta, Georgia, so I was raised there near the big city," Dr. Marshburn recalled recently while at the Johnson Space Center near Houston. "We had some family property, a farm in north Georgia, spent a lot of time there fixing fences and spending a lot of time outdoors."
Known as Tommy to friends and his three brothers and three sisters, Dr. Marshburn first thought about space flight while at Henderson High.
"It was in high school that I thought the space program is interesting to me," he noted. "And it was specifically the space program that got me into a technical field and I just switch completely. I concentrated on math, science and fell in love with the physics classes."
Marshburn, Chris Hadfield and Roman Romanenko will lift-off on December 19 at 7:12 a.m. EST, an hour before the first bell rings to begin a new class day at Henderson High School.
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
Monday, November 12, 2012
International crew lifts-off bound for space station
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- An American, Canadian and Russian departed the bitterly cold desert of western Kazakhstan today riding atop Russia's Soyuz rocket en route to the International Space Station for the holidays.
NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn, Canadian Space Agency's Chris Hadfield and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko lifted-off into the sunset skies over the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 7:12 a.m. EST (6:12 p.m. local time) on Wednesday, beginning a two day voyage to the orbiting outpost.
The new crew will spend five months in space, beginning with the passage of the Christmas season.
"We planned for it a long time ago," Marshburn said at a recent news conference about his thoughts on Christmas morning. "I have a ten year old daughter, and that'll be tough thinking about her waking up in the morning and enjoying things. It'll be a bit tough for me, but I think the price is certainly well worth it to be up here."
For Hadfield, whose children live in different parts of the world, he was fortunate to met up with his wife and children near the bitterly cold launch site a few days before his flight.
"We (got) together for Christmas in Kazakhstan," the musician-astronaut said with a gleeful smile. "Makes a nice card, 'Christmas in Kazakhstan'."
As the countdown reached zero, so did the outside temperature (°F), and fuel and support arms quickly retracted away from the 151-foot tall rocket. The Soyuz FG's four liquid fueled boosters and core main engine ignited on time launching the international crew of three upward into the night sky.
At the same time, the crew's port-of-call soared high over the eastern Atlantic Ocean near Africa's coastline.
Two minutes into the rocket's climb to orbit, the boosters emptied their fuel and were jettisoned. Seven minutes later, the crew arrived in low earth orbit and began deploying the craft's twin solar arrays.
After completing 34 orbits of the earth, the Soyuz TMA-07M will make a slow approach to the station and dock to the Russian Rassvet module on Friday. Docking time is planned for 9:10 a.m.
Two hours following docking, the newly arriving crew will then float into the orbiting lab to join three veteran crew members.
Station commander and NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin have been living aboard the outpost since October 25.
Hadfield, a veteran of two space shuttle flights to two different space stations, will become the first Canadian to command the International Space Station beginning in March.
The 53-year-old has included special foods and mementos from his native Canada to enjoy during his five-month voyage 260 miles above earth.
Maple syrup, jerky and chocolate traveled into space tucked in the astronaut's personal bag, Hadfield revealed last week.
Hadfield, the only Canadian to walk in space, will also mark a first in February with the first song to premiere in space, I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing), a duet with musician Ed Robertson.
NASA's Marshburn will also be making his second trip to the station having spent two weeks aboard in 2009.
Born in Statesville, North Carolina, his family moved to Atlanta a few years later graduating from Henderson High School in 1978.
Dr. Marshburn, M.D. became an astronaut in 2006, and was a member of shuttle Endeavour's crew which delivered the Japanese module to the space station. He also performed three spacewalks to assist in the new module's installation.
And, although there are no spacewalks planned during his stay, Marshburn said he "would love to" perform one if necessary.
Cosmonaut Romanenko was serving as flight engineer during Marshburn's brief stay in summer of 2009. A major in the Russian Air Force, Romanenko logged 188 days in space as part of the expedition 20 and 21 crews that year.
The space trio will live and work aboard the space station until May 2013.
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science and technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn, Canadian Space Agency's Chris Hadfield and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko lifted-off into the sunset skies over the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 7:12 a.m. EST (6:12 p.m. local time) on Wednesday, beginning a two day voyage to the orbiting outpost.
The new crew will spend five months in space, beginning with the passage of the Christmas season.
"We planned for it a long time ago," Marshburn said at a recent news conference about his thoughts on Christmas morning. "I have a ten year old daughter, and that'll be tough thinking about her waking up in the morning and enjoying things. It'll be a bit tough for me, but I think the price is certainly well worth it to be up here."
For Hadfield, whose children live in different parts of the world, he was fortunate to met up with his wife and children near the bitterly cold launch site a few days before his flight.
"We (got) together for Christmas in Kazakhstan," the musician-astronaut said with a gleeful smile. "Makes a nice card, 'Christmas in Kazakhstan'."
As the countdown reached zero, so did the outside temperature (°F), and fuel and support arms quickly retracted away from the 151-foot tall rocket. The Soyuz FG's four liquid fueled boosters and core main engine ignited on time launching the international crew of three upward into the night sky.
At the same time, the crew's port-of-call soared high over the eastern Atlantic Ocean near Africa's coastline.
Two minutes into the rocket's climb to orbit, the boosters emptied their fuel and were jettisoned. Seven minutes later, the crew arrived in low earth orbit and began deploying the craft's twin solar arrays.
After completing 34 orbits of the earth, the Soyuz TMA-07M will make a slow approach to the station and dock to the Russian Rassvet module on Friday. Docking time is planned for 9:10 a.m.
Two hours following docking, the newly arriving crew will then float into the orbiting lab to join three veteran crew members.
Station commander and NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin have been living aboard the outpost since October 25.
Hadfield, a veteran of two space shuttle flights to two different space stations, will become the first Canadian to command the International Space Station beginning in March.
The 53-year-old has included special foods and mementos from his native Canada to enjoy during his five-month voyage 260 miles above earth.
Maple syrup, jerky and chocolate traveled into space tucked in the astronaut's personal bag, Hadfield revealed last week.
Hadfield, the only Canadian to walk in space, will also mark a first in February with the first song to premiere in space, I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing), a duet with musician Ed Robertson.
NASA's Marshburn will also be making his second trip to the station having spent two weeks aboard in 2009.
Born in Statesville, North Carolina, his family moved to Atlanta a few years later graduating from Henderson High School in 1978.
Dr. Marshburn, M.D. became an astronaut in 2006, and was a member of shuttle Endeavour's crew which delivered the Japanese module to the space station. He also performed three spacewalks to assist in the new module's installation.
And, although there are no spacewalks planned during his stay, Marshburn said he "would love to" perform one if necessary.
Cosmonaut Romanenko was serving as flight engineer during Marshburn's brief stay in summer of 2009. A major in the Russian Air Force, Romanenko logged 188 days in space as part of the expedition 20 and 21 crews that year.
The space trio will live and work aboard the space station until May 2013.
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science and technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Commercial cargo craft Dragon departs space station
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The first operational commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station was released back on it's own on Sunday after delivering fresh supplies and hardware to a crew of six.
Built and operated by Space Exploration Technologies Inc. or SpaceX, the Dragon cargo craft was launched from Cape Canaveral on October 7 with nearly 880 pounds of supplies for the station's crew.
During the craft's nearly three weeks docked with the orbiting complex, astronauts unloaded the new supplies and then loaded 1,673 pounds of cargo and trash, including several science experiments, for the return home. One experiment headed home contains living spiders.
Operated by ground controllers, the space station's 58-foot Canada-built robotic arm slowly eased Dragon back away from it's docking port at 7:19 a.m. EDT, 263 miles above earth.
The craft anchored at the end of the arm was moved out to 30 feet away before being released upon the ocean of space at 9:29 a.m.
Dragon's current mission is the first of twelve planned resupply flight's to the orbital outpost in a commercial agreement valued at over $1.5 billion with NASA during the next four years.
The supply craft is expected to leave earth orbit at 2:28 p.m. as the spacecraft fires it's engines for ten minutes to slow it's orbital speed down.
Dragon is the only unmanned supply craft to have a heat shield and parachutes which can allow NASA to return space flown hardware and science experiments back to earth safely.
Splashdown is expected about 250 miles off the coast of Baja California at about 3:20 p.m.
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
Built and operated by Space Exploration Technologies Inc. or SpaceX, the Dragon cargo craft was launched from Cape Canaveral on October 7 with nearly 880 pounds of supplies for the station's crew.
During the craft's nearly three weeks docked with the orbiting complex, astronauts unloaded the new supplies and then loaded 1,673 pounds of cargo and trash, including several science experiments, for the return home. One experiment headed home contains living spiders.
Operated by ground controllers, the space station's 58-foot Canada-built robotic arm slowly eased Dragon back away from it's docking port at 7:19 a.m. EDT, 263 miles above earth.
The craft anchored at the end of the arm was moved out to 30 feet away before being released upon the ocean of space at 9:29 a.m.
Dragon's current mission is the first of twelve planned resupply flight's to the orbital outpost in a commercial agreement valued at over $1.5 billion with NASA during the next four years.
The supply craft is expected to leave earth orbit at 2:28 p.m. as the spacecraft fires it's engines for ten minutes to slow it's orbital speed down.
Dragon is the only unmanned supply craft to have a heat shield and parachutes which can allow NASA to return space flown hardware and science experiments back to earth safely.
Splashdown is expected about 250 miles off the coast of Baja California at about 3:20 p.m.
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
An American, two Russians lift-off en route to space station
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts left earth on Tuesday to begin a five month stay aboard the International Space Station.
Soyuz commander Oleg Novitskiy, NASA veteran space flyer Kevin Ford, and Evgeny Tarelkin will live and work 260 miles above earth aboard the orbiting outpost until March 2013.
The white and green Soyuz FG rocket lifted-off on time at 6:51:11 a.m. EDT, today from it's desert launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in western Kazakhstan.
The Russian rocket darted into the clear blue skies and toward the eastern horizon as it pushed it's cramped crew tucked inside the space craft on a chase to rendezvous with it's port-of-call.
A minute into the flight, the crew reported an alarm sounding in the cabin, however ground controllers reported everything was fine on board.
As the rocket soared higher, boosters and stages which pushed the craft higher began to fall away as it emptied it's fuel.
Nine minutes after launch, the Soyuz TMA-06M craft arrived on orbit, and began to deploy it's solar arrays for two days of circling the earth.
"Congratulations!," Russian mission control in Moscow radioed the crew.
Docking of the Soyuz TMA-07M craft to the station's Poisk module is planned for Thursday at 8:35 a.m.
Novitskiy, Ford and Tarelkin will join the station's commander and NASA astronaut Suni Williams, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko who have been living in space since July.
The crew's arrival at their new home will come during a busy week ahead aboard the station.
"We have a lot of visiting vehicles that will come and go," Ford said recently.
The SpaceX commercial cargo craft Dragon will undock and depart on Sunday, filled with recent science experiments and trash, for it's return to earth eight hours later.
Three days later, the crew of six will welcome an unmanned Russian cargo craft loaded with over two tons of supplies and hardware.
The Progress M-17M craft is set to lift-off from Baikonur next Wednesday, October 31 at 3:41 a.m., beginning it's brief chase by docking just six hours later.
Williams and Hoshide will then begin a six hour spacewalk the next day to repair a leaking amnonia line on the Port 6 Truss segment's radiators.
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
Soyuz commander Oleg Novitskiy, NASA veteran space flyer Kevin Ford, and Evgeny Tarelkin will live and work 260 miles above earth aboard the orbiting outpost until March 2013.
The white and green Soyuz FG rocket lifted-off on time at 6:51:11 a.m. EDT, today from it's desert launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in western Kazakhstan.
The Russian rocket darted into the clear blue skies and toward the eastern horizon as it pushed it's cramped crew tucked inside the space craft on a chase to rendezvous with it's port-of-call.
A minute into the flight, the crew reported an alarm sounding in the cabin, however ground controllers reported everything was fine on board.
As the rocket soared higher, boosters and stages which pushed the craft higher began to fall away as it emptied it's fuel.
Nine minutes after launch, the Soyuz TMA-06M craft arrived on orbit, and began to deploy it's solar arrays for two days of circling the earth.
"Congratulations!," Russian mission control in Moscow radioed the crew.
Docking of the Soyuz TMA-07M craft to the station's Poisk module is planned for Thursday at 8:35 a.m.
Novitskiy, Ford and Tarelkin will join the station's commander and NASA astronaut Suni Williams, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko who have been living in space since July.
The crew's arrival at their new home will come during a busy week ahead aboard the station.
"We have a lot of visiting vehicles that will come and go," Ford said recently.
The SpaceX commercial cargo craft Dragon will undock and depart on Sunday, filled with recent science experiments and trash, for it's return to earth eight hours later.
Three days later, the crew of six will welcome an unmanned Russian cargo craft loaded with over two tons of supplies and hardware.
The Progress M-17M craft is set to lift-off from Baikonur next Wednesday, October 31 at 3:41 a.m., beginning it's brief chase by docking just six hours later.
Williams and Hoshide will then begin a six hour spacewalk the next day to repair a leaking amnonia line on the Port 6 Truss segment's radiators.
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
Saturday, October 20, 2012
"Beautiful" Orionids meteor shower to peak early Sunday
ATLANTA, Ga. -- Clear skies overhead on Sunday will set the stage for some celestrial fireworks thanks in part to Halley's Comet.
The Orionid meteor shower will create nearly 25 shooting stars during the predawn hours of October 21 as Earth's orbit flies into dust particles of the tail of Halley's Comet.
NASA experts suggest the best viewing time is a few hours before sunrise.
"It is one of the most beautiful showers of the year," states NASA's meteor chief Bill Cooke of the Meteoroid Environment Office. "Flakes of comet dust hitting the atmosphere should give us dozens of meteors per hour."
The moon will set early on Saturday night setting the stage for a dark night sky.
Cooke offers a few viewing tips to watching the celestrial show, "Go outside one to two hours before sunrise, when the sky is dark and the constellation Orion is high overhead."
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center astronomer Mitzi Adams suggests bringing a blanket or reclining chair and some hot chocolate to enjoy the show.
Cooke adds that over the last five years, "the Orionids have been one of the best meteor showers of the year, with counts in some years up to sixty or more meteors per hour."
Adams will host a live Web Chat on NASA's Ustream feed with commentary on the Orionid meteor shower beginning at 11:00 p.m. EDT, on Saturday and running through peak time at 3:00 a.m.
A live NASA camera of the night sky will also air as Adams answers viewer's questions.
Speeding at some 148,000 m.p.h., Cooke notes that the faster a meteor is the more likely it will be to explode causing a bright flash.
The space agency will also have a series of cameras trained on the night sky to capture the shooting stars.
The cameras are operated by Marshall Space Flight Center and are known as the Fireball Cameras. Several of these cameras create a network for observation, and includes one located atop the Tellus Science Museum in northwest Atlanta.
"NASA's Fireball Camera is light sensitive and will begin recording the night sky for meteors after the Sun goes down," explains Tellus' marketing director Joe Schulman. "If anything goes over, we'll capture it."
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
The Orionid meteor shower will create nearly 25 shooting stars during the predawn hours of October 21 as Earth's orbit flies into dust particles of the tail of Halley's Comet.
NASA experts suggest the best viewing time is a few hours before sunrise.
"It is one of the most beautiful showers of the year," states NASA's meteor chief Bill Cooke of the Meteoroid Environment Office. "Flakes of comet dust hitting the atmosphere should give us dozens of meteors per hour."
The moon will set early on Saturday night setting the stage for a dark night sky.
Cooke offers a few viewing tips to watching the celestrial show, "Go outside one to two hours before sunrise, when the sky is dark and the constellation Orion is high overhead."
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center astronomer Mitzi Adams suggests bringing a blanket or reclining chair and some hot chocolate to enjoy the show.
Cooke adds that over the last five years, "the Orionids have been one of the best meteor showers of the year, with counts in some years up to sixty or more meteors per hour."
Adams will host a live Web Chat on NASA's Ustream feed with commentary on the Orionid meteor shower beginning at 11:00 p.m. EDT, on Saturday and running through peak time at 3:00 a.m.
A live NASA camera of the night sky will also air as Adams answers viewer's questions.
Speeding at some 148,000 m.p.h., Cooke notes that the faster a meteor is the more likely it will be to explode causing a bright flash.
The space agency will also have a series of cameras trained on the night sky to capture the shooting stars.
The cameras are operated by Marshall Space Flight Center and are known as the Fireball Cameras. Several of these cameras create a network for observation, and includes one located atop the Tellus Science Museum in northwest Atlanta.
"NASA's Fireball Camera is light sensitive and will begin recording the night sky for meteors after the Sun goes down," explains Tellus' marketing director Joe Schulman. "If anything goes over, we'll capture it."
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Space station crew to spend a full year in orbit
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A NASA astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut will expand the knowledge base on the effects of long term space travel on the human body beginning in 2015.
Space flight veterans American Scott Kelly and Russian Mikhail Kornienko will begin a full year in space in March 2015, as they live and work aboard the International Space Station.
The flight will also mark the longest space flight by an American.
"The one year increment will expand the bounds of how we live and work in space," NASA's head for human exploration Bill Gerstenmaier said on Monday. "(it) will increase our knowledge regarding the effects of microgravity on humans as we prepare for future missions beyond low earth orbit."
Kelly has spent 180 days in space during two space shuttle flights and aboard the space station, including as station commander in 2011.
Kelly and Kornienko will launch from western Kazakhstan atop a Russian Soyuz rocket, docking six hours later to the orbital outpost 260 miles high.
The duo will be visited by four expedition crews arriving and departing during their stay.
The typical time in space for a station crew is five months. NASA and the Russian Space Agency are looking for data on the human body extending out another seven months as the two nations look toward long voyages to the moon or even an asteroid.
Much is known regarding the short duration effects on a space flyer such as bone and muscle loss, and the harmful radiation levels as strong solar wind passes through the thin shell of the space complex and through the astronaut's body.
There is an even greater unknown for time exceeding six months in space.
"The goal of their yearlong expedition is to understand better how the human body reacts and adapts to the harsh environment of space," stated Josh Buck at NASA Headquarters on Monday. "
The United States Department of Labor's Operational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has their own rules regarding space flight to keep radiation exposure low.
OSHA has warned since the 1990's that space flights should not last greater than six months due to levels of radiation dosage from our Sun, and the Van Allen Radiation Belt located around earth.
NASA has it's own internal guidelines regarding radiation dosage levels using the Sievert (Sv) scale during a 365-day period, and that one should not exceed 0.2 Sv while in space.
Kelly and Kornienko will begin a complex training schedule in January.
Kelly is the twin brother of former space shuttle astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
Space flight veterans American Scott Kelly and Russian Mikhail Kornienko will begin a full year in space in March 2015, as they live and work aboard the International Space Station.
The flight will also mark the longest space flight by an American.
"The one year increment will expand the bounds of how we live and work in space," NASA's head for human exploration Bill Gerstenmaier said on Monday. "(it) will increase our knowledge regarding the effects of microgravity on humans as we prepare for future missions beyond low earth orbit."
Kelly has spent 180 days in space during two space shuttle flights and aboard the space station, including as station commander in 2011.
Kelly and Kornienko will launch from western Kazakhstan atop a Russian Soyuz rocket, docking six hours later to the orbital outpost 260 miles high.
The duo will be visited by four expedition crews arriving and departing during their stay.
The typical time in space for a station crew is five months. NASA and the Russian Space Agency are looking for data on the human body extending out another seven months as the two nations look toward long voyages to the moon or even an asteroid.
Much is known regarding the short duration effects on a space flyer such as bone and muscle loss, and the harmful radiation levels as strong solar wind passes through the thin shell of the space complex and through the astronaut's body.
There is an even greater unknown for time exceeding six months in space.
"The goal of their yearlong expedition is to understand better how the human body reacts and adapts to the harsh environment of space," stated Josh Buck at NASA Headquarters on Monday. "
The United States Department of Labor's Operational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has their own rules regarding space flight to keep radiation exposure low.
OSHA has warned since the 1990's that space flights should not last greater than six months due to levels of radiation dosage from our Sun, and the Van Allen Radiation Belt located around earth.
NASA has it's own internal guidelines regarding radiation dosage levels using the Sievert (Sv) scale during a 365-day period, and that one should not exceed 0.2 Sv while in space.
Kelly and Kornienko will begin a complex training schedule in January.
Kelly is the twin brother of former space shuttle astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
Sunday, October 07, 2012
Commercial cargo craft launches toward Space Station
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A commercial cargo craft loaded with fresh supplies and equipment lifted-off tonight on a voyage to resupply earth's orbital outpost in space.
This first operational resupply flight by a private company, Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX), is designed to repeat the company's test flight last May which saw their Dragon unmanned craft approach the International Space Station to be grappled by the station's robotic arm for docking.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket departed America's Space Coast on-time at 8:35:07 p.m. EDT, to begin a nearly three day voyage to catch up with the space station.
"We still have a lot of work to do, of course, as we guide Dragon's approach to the space station," Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, said from his company's control room in California following the craft's arrival on orbit. "The launch was an unqualified success."
The rocket's Merlin engines light up the night time Florida sky as it rose up and then darted out over the Atlantic waters as the space station soared 250 miles high above the southern Pacific Ocean.
Ten minutes after lift-off, the Dragon resupply spacecraft separated from the Falcon's upper stage to begin it's voyage to the space station.
"We are ready to grab Dragon!", NASA astronaut and station commander Suni Williams radioed down to mission control as Dragon arrived on orbit.
Dragon is loaded with nearly 900 pounds of food, oxygen, fuel and experiments which it will deliver following docking on Wednesday.
Dragon's launch is the first of twelve planned resupply flight's to the orbital outpost in a commercial agreement valued at over $1.5 billion with NASA over the next four years.
"Today's launch is a huge milestone for us; we have roughly 700 pounds of equipment coming home when Dragon returns," Julie Robinson, NASA program head with the space station program stated moments after launch. "It's a really important flight for us."
Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide will maneuver the station's 58-foot robotic arm out to grapple the appraching supply craft on Wednesday at 7:22 a.m.
The craft will then be berthed by Williams two hours later to the American Harmony port which faces toward earth.
There it will stay for three weeks while the current space station crew of three unload the new supplies and later begin storing experiments, used equipment and garbage for the craft's return to earth.
Dragon is the only unmanned supply craft to have a heat shield and parachutes which allows NASA to return space flown hardware and real time science experiments back to earth safely.
Dragon is expected to make a splashdown off the United States Pacific coastline around October 29.
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
This first operational resupply flight by a private company, Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX), is designed to repeat the company's test flight last May which saw their Dragon unmanned craft approach the International Space Station to be grappled by the station's robotic arm for docking.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket departed America's Space Coast on-time at 8:35:07 p.m. EDT, to begin a nearly three day voyage to catch up with the space station.
"We still have a lot of work to do, of course, as we guide Dragon's approach to the space station," Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, said from his company's control room in California following the craft's arrival on orbit. "The launch was an unqualified success."
The rocket's Merlin engines light up the night time Florida sky as it rose up and then darted out over the Atlantic waters as the space station soared 250 miles high above the southern Pacific Ocean.
Ten minutes after lift-off, the Dragon resupply spacecraft separated from the Falcon's upper stage to begin it's voyage to the space station.
"We are ready to grab Dragon!", NASA astronaut and station commander Suni Williams radioed down to mission control as Dragon arrived on orbit.
Dragon is loaded with nearly 900 pounds of food, oxygen, fuel and experiments which it will deliver following docking on Wednesday.
Dragon's launch is the first of twelve planned resupply flight's to the orbital outpost in a commercial agreement valued at over $1.5 billion with NASA over the next four years.
"Today's launch is a huge milestone for us; we have roughly 700 pounds of equipment coming home when Dragon returns," Julie Robinson, NASA program head with the space station program stated moments after launch. "It's a really important flight for us."
Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide will maneuver the station's 58-foot robotic arm out to grapple the appraching supply craft on Wednesday at 7:22 a.m.
The craft will then be berthed by Williams two hours later to the American Harmony port which faces toward earth.
There it will stay for three weeks while the current space station crew of three unload the new supplies and later begin storing experiments, used equipment and garbage for the craft's return to earth.
Dragon is the only unmanned supply craft to have a heat shield and parachutes which allows NASA to return space flown hardware and real time science experiments back to earth safely.
Dragon is expected to make a splashdown off the United States Pacific coastline around October 29.
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
Thursday, October 04, 2012
Delta IV launches replacement GPS satellite
An advanced GPS satellite soars toward orbit from Cape Canaveral. (ULA)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A white and bronze rocket lifted-off from America's Space Coast on Thursday to deliver a new GPS satellite to a network in which commuters in the air and on the ground relay upon.
The enhanced NAVSTAR GPS IIF-3 will become a replacement satellite for one of the twenty-four aging GPS IIF's.
A United Launch Alliance Delta IV-Medium launched into the blue skies of Cape Canaveral at 8:10 a.m. EDT on October 4, and then began it's arc out over the Atlantic waters.
The Boeing-built spacecraft is designed to improve network coverage for both civilian and military networks, including a new L5 signal for improved commercial and civil aviation users.
The spacecraft is scheduled to separate from the rocket's upper stage at 11:43 a.m. over an area off the coast of Hong Kong, China.
Thursday's launch came on the fifty-fifth anniversary of the dawn of the space age and the launch of the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1.
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
Thursday, August 30, 2012
NASA approves Martian lander InSight for 2016 mission
ATLANTA -- NASA approved a new discovery mission to Mars which will feature the first extensive exploration of the planet's internal structure.
The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, or InSight, lander will lift-off for the Red Planet on March 8, 2016 from Cape Canaveral and land eight months later at a sight along the equator.
NASA hopes the spacecraft will provide new insight into several key questions such as does Mars have a liquid or solid core, and to learn about the planet's internal motions including the Sun's effect on the fourth planet from our closest star.
"In 2016, we will be landing a static lander and the main purpose is to deploy a seismometer instrument to see if there are any quakes on Mars," Dr. Charles Elachi, Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at CalTech explained to this aerospace reporter on Wednesday.
"More importantly to use that signal from the quake to look at the internal structure of Mars, it's core and how does it compare to earth," Dr. Elachi stated as we stood outside on the campus of Georgia Tech. "So it's really an experiment to compare the internal structure of Mars with the internal structure of Earth and it's moon."
The geophysical lander and it's instruments will be built by both American and international aerospace companies over the next two years. Lockheed Martin Space Systems will build the lander while the German Aerospace Center will build the HP3 heat probe.
NASA's JPL will instruct the lander to drill down into Mars to take the first internal temperature readings of another planet.
"InSight has a drill which will go down about five feet to measure the heat flow," Dr. Elachi added. "How is the heat flowing on the inside of Mars and up to the surface?"
France's space agency is at work on a seismometer known as SEIS which will measure seismic waves inside the Red Planet.
The new lander will feature several cameras, including the first 3D still camera on another world. Dr. Elachi explained, however, all of InSight's camera will be in black and white.
(Charles Atkeison reports on science & technology. Follow his aerospace updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, or InSight, lander will lift-off for the Red Planet on March 8, 2016 from Cape Canaveral and land eight months later at a sight along the equator.
NASA hopes the spacecraft will provide new insight into several key questions such as does Mars have a liquid or solid core, and to learn about the planet's internal motions including the Sun's effect on the fourth planet from our closest star.
"In 2016, we will be landing a static lander and the main purpose is to deploy a seismometer instrument to see if there are any quakes on Mars," Dr. Charles Elachi, Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at CalTech explained to this aerospace reporter on Wednesday.
"More importantly to use that signal from the quake to look at the internal structure of Mars, it's core and how does it compare to earth," Dr. Elachi stated as we stood outside on the campus of Georgia Tech. "So it's really an experiment to compare the internal structure of Mars with the internal structure of Earth and it's moon."
The geophysical lander and it's instruments will be built by both American and international aerospace companies over the next two years. Lockheed Martin Space Systems will build the lander while the German Aerospace Center will build the HP3 heat probe.
NASA's JPL will instruct the lander to drill down into Mars to take the first internal temperature readings of another planet.
"InSight has a drill which will go down about five feet to measure the heat flow," Dr. Elachi added. "How is the heat flowing on the inside of Mars and up to the surface?"
France's space agency is at work on a seismometer known as SEIS which will measure seismic waves inside the Red Planet.
The new lander will feature several cameras, including the first 3D still camera on another world. Dr. Elachi explained, however, all of InSight's camera will be in black and white.
(Charles Atkeison reports on science & technology. Follow his aerospace updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
Thursday, August 02, 2012
Scientific rover Curiosity prepares for landing on Mars
PASADENA, Calif. -- A massive scientific rover is set to make a dynamic landing on the planet Mars on Sunday night, a type of landing which has never been tried on another world, beginning two years of exploration.
The Mars Curiosity rover will enter the atmosphere of the Red Planet protected by a heat shield and then streak across the alien atmosphere on a course to land at the base of a three-mile high mountain known as Aeolis Mons inside Gale Crater.
The rover's landing phase will have scientists at NASA Jet Propulsion Lab and observers across the planet tuned in as a huge sky crane separates upward from the rover unit and fires thrusters to slow the rover down.
Suspended by cables twenty-five feet long, Curiosity will be gently sat down inside Gale crater at 1:17 a.m. EDT on Monday. Official word of it's landing will be received fourteen minutes later at JPL.
The exact landing zone will be in the northwest section of the the 96-mile wide crater.
Once safely down the cables will separate from the never before flown sky crane and it will jet away off into the horizon.
Curiosity is part of the Mars Science Laboratory which will roam the Martian surface for 23 Earth months looking for signs of life within it's environmental history.
"This may be one of the thickest exposed sections of layered sedimentary rocks in the solar system," states NASA MSL Deputy Project Scientist Joy Crisp. "The rock record preserved in those layers holds stories that are billions of years old -- stories about whether, when, and for how long Mars might have been habitable."
The ten-foot long rover will arrive loaded with the latest technology for taking soil samples and will use a laser to blast apart rocks to study it's makeup.
Curiosity will have several high resolution cameras aboard one of which is at the top of it's mast. JPL scientists state you will view Mars like never before.
The rover began it's 567 million mile journey from Cape Canaveral on November 26 high atop an Atlas V rocket.
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
The Mars Curiosity rover will enter the atmosphere of the Red Planet protected by a heat shield and then streak across the alien atmosphere on a course to land at the base of a three-mile high mountain known as Aeolis Mons inside Gale Crater.
The rover's landing phase will have scientists at NASA Jet Propulsion Lab and observers across the planet tuned in as a huge sky crane separates upward from the rover unit and fires thrusters to slow the rover down.
Suspended by cables twenty-five feet long, Curiosity will be gently sat down inside Gale crater at 1:17 a.m. EDT on Monday. Official word of it's landing will be received fourteen minutes later at JPL.
The exact landing zone will be in the northwest section of the the 96-mile wide crater.
Once safely down the cables will separate from the never before flown sky crane and it will jet away off into the horizon.
Curiosity is part of the Mars Science Laboratory which will roam the Martian surface for 23 Earth months looking for signs of life within it's environmental history.
"This may be one of the thickest exposed sections of layered sedimentary rocks in the solar system," states NASA MSL Deputy Project Scientist Joy Crisp. "The rock record preserved in those layers holds stories that are billions of years old -- stories about whether, when, and for how long Mars might have been habitable."
The ten-foot long rover will arrive loaded with the latest technology for taking soil samples and will use a laser to blast apart rocks to study it's makeup.
Curiosity will have several high resolution cameras aboard one of which is at the top of it's mast. JPL scientists state you will view Mars like never before.
The rover began it's 567 million mile journey from Cape Canaveral on November 26 high atop an Atlas V rocket.
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
Saturday, May 26, 2012
First private spacecraft docks to space station
May 24, 2012 NASA / SpaceX news conference to update Dragon.
(CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.) -- Astronauts aboard the International Space Station spent Saturday unloading fresh supplies from the newly arrived commercial spacecraft Dragon.
Constructed and launched by the private company Space Exploration Technologies or SpaceX, Dragon arrived at the orbiting complex on Friday loaded with nearly 1200 pounds of clothes, food, water and a computer for the crew.
Flight engineer Don Pettit, who used the station's 57-foot robotic arm to pluck Dragon from space and berth it to Harmony, and two astronauts will begin on Monday unloading the craft.
The trio will then reload Dragon with station experiments, trash and equipment for it's return to earth.
Dragon will stay berthed to the station's Harmony node until Thursday.
"May 31st is our planned departure day," NASA lead flight director Holly Ridings explained to this aerospace reporter. "We've got a couple of days after that to work with, and then the Dragon if needed could stay after that."
The station's crew have bagged up most of what will be loaded and returned to earth.
"We're gonna have plenty of time to get Dragon unloaded and loaded back up," Pettit answered when I asked him about the short timeline.
"There's about as much stuff in (Dragon) as I can put in the back of my pick-up truck, and I don't think there will be any issue with the three of us working and getting this thing unloaded over the next few days."
The final Dragon mission objective will come with the safe recovery of the payloads the craft returns from the orbital outpost.
Dragon is expected to splashdown in the Pacific waters at about 10:45 a.m. EDT, some 250 miles off the coast of southern California nearly five hours after leaving the space station.
(Charles Atkeison reports on science & technology for Examiner.com. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
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