Ariane 5 lifts record payload into space

11 August 2005

This morning an Ariane 5G launcher lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. On board was the largest telecommunications satellite ever to be placed into geostationary transfer orbit.

The mission was initially delayed during the two-hour-long launch window to verify telemetry readings from Ariane 5's mobile launch table, and the countdown subsequently resumed for an early morning takeoff from the ELA-3 launch zone.
The heavyweight THAICOM 4 (IPSTAR) satellite had a lift-off mass of almost 6500 kg. Before this morning’s launch, the record for the heaviest telecommunications satellite to be placed into orbit belonged to the Anik F2 satellite, launched by an Ariane 5 launcher in July 2004.
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DEEP NEWS
Newsletter for the Deep Impact mission
Issue #25, August 2005

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Less than a month after the Deep Impact encounter with comet Tempel 1, the science team met for a week to analyze their data and to prepare a paper for publication. Over the next two months, updates on discoveries from both space and ground observation will be released to the public. In the meantime, take a look at what scientists for the Deep Impact mission have discovered during the first weeks of poring over data. To make sure you are ready, visit:
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov
http://deepimpact.umd.edu

ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK - A CELEBRATION OF COMETS!
On July 5th, the Deep Impact team and all employees at Jet Propulsion Laboratory were treated to an impact of a different sort as the members of the original Bill Haley and His Comets (now The Comets) performed a one hour celebration concert of their hit songs including "Rock Around the Clock". The song went to #1 during the same week 50 years ago.

WHO ELSE ROCKED AROUND THE CLOCK - DEEP IMPACT ENCOUNTER AND THE WORLD!
You saw the images coming down to Earth in near- real time but what was happening around the world at that moment? Talk about a Deep Impact!
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/science/diAroundWorld.html

MISSION UPDATE - THE SCIENCE TEAM MEETS WITH GROUND OBSERVERS
Less than one month after encounter, as the science team is still poring over data from the spacecraft, they gather for a week long meeting with observers who were watching the impact from the ground.
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/update.html

OBSERVING FROM EARTH - AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS CONTRIBUTE DATA
Amateur astronomers, some of whom have observed comet Tempel 1 since its prior orbit around the Sun 5.5 years ago, took important observations during encounter and submitted them as part of the data for the Deep Impact mission.
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/science/obsFromEarth.html

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL - MEET DENNIS WELLNITZ
Dennis worked on the Deep Impact project to represent Principal Investigator Mike A'Hearn's concerns for the capabilities of the spacecraft instruments used to observe comet Tempel 1. Meet Dennis Wellnitz. http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/bio-dwellnitz.html

DEEP IMPACT - BEGINNING THOUGHTS
Peter Schultz of the Deep Impact science member talks about some of his first thoughts after looking at early data of the encounter with comet Tempel 1. But first, take a look at a video from days before the impact and some of the impact tests performed by Pete at Ames.

Video of expectations:
http://cc.jpl.nasa.gov/deepimpact/050630-simulation.qtl

What did he think we might see of the impact and how does that compare to his thoughts two days after the event?
Early thoughts:
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/science/cratering_impressions.html

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL - MORE ON PETER SCHULTZ
You've heard Pete talk about how he thought the mission would make a Deep Impact. Now find out about the Deep Impact science has made on him. Meet Pete Schultz.
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/bio-pschultz.html

EDUCATORS - HAVE YOU LOOKED AT OUR ACTIVITIES FOR STUDENTS LATELY?
If you want to make a Deep Impact on your students, make sure you take a look at our Education page at:
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/educ/index.html
and some of the fun activities in our Discovery Zone at:
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/disczone/index.html

DID YOU SEE OUR PAST DEEP NEWS ISSUES?
Visit http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/newsletter/archive.html to catch up on exciting past news from the Deep Impact mission.

Deep Impact is a Discovery mission. For more information on the Discovery Program, visit:
http://discovery.nasa.gov/

The Deep Impact mission is a partnership among the University of Maryland (UMD), the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp (BATC). Deep Impact is a NASA Discovery mission, eighth in a series of low-cost, highly focused space science investigations. See http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov or our mirror site at http://deepimpact.umd.edu.

The functions for searching for your certificate in the Send Your Name to a Comet campaign and Signing Up for Deep News Newsletter were removed from the site for our high web traffic time and will be returned in the near future. Thanks for your patience!

QUESTIONS ABOUT DEEP NEWS? CONTACT US AT:
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/feedback-form.html

[url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2005-139]Cassini Finds Enceladus Tiger Stripes Are Really Cubs

NASA's Deep Impact Adds Color to Unfolding Comet Picture

September 06, 2005

Painting by the numbers is a good description of how scientists create pictures of everything from atoms in our bodies to asteroids and comets in our solar system. Researchers involved in NASA's Deep Impact mission have been doing this kind of work since the mission's July 4th collision with comet Tempel 1.

"Prior to our Deep Impact experiment, scientists had a lot of questions and untested ideas about the structure and composition of the nucleus, or solid body of a comet, but we had almost no real knowledge," said Deep Impact principal investigator Dr. Michael A'Hearn, a professor of astronomy at the University of Maryland, College Park. "Our analysis of data produced by Deep Impact is revealing a great deal, much of it rather surprising."

For example, comet Tempel 1 has a very fluffy structure that is weaker than a bank of powder snow. The fine dust of the comet is held together by gravity. However, that gravity is so weak, if you could stand on the bank and jump, you would launch yourself into space.

Another surprise for A'Hearn and his colleagues was the evidence of what appears to be impact craters on the surface of the comet. Previously, two other comets had their nuclei closely observed and neither showed evidence of impact craters.

"The nucleus of Tempel 1 has distinct layers shown in topographic relief ranging from very smooth areas to areas with features that satisfy all the criteria for impact craters, including varying size," A'Hearn said. "The problem in stating with certainty that these are impact craters is that we don't know of a mechanism by which some comets would collide with the flotsam and jetsam in our solar system, while others would not.”

According to A'Hearn, one of the more interesting findings may be the huge increase in carbon-containing molecules detected in spectral analysis of the ejection plume. This finding indicates comets contain a substantial amount of organic material, so they could have brought such material to Earth early in the planet's history when strikes by asteroids and meteors were common.

Another finding is the comet interior is well shielded from the solar heating experienced by the surface of the comet nucleus. Mission data indicate the nucleus of Tempel 1 is extremely porous. Its porosity allows the surface of the nucleus to heat up and cool down almost instantly in response to sunlight. This suggests heat is not easily conducted to the interior and the ice and other material deep inside the nucleus may be pristine and unchanged from the early days of the solar system, just as many scientists had suggested.

"The infrared spectrometer gave us the first temperature map of a comet, allowing us to measure the surface's thermal inertia, or ability to conduct heat to the interior," said Dr. Olivier Groussin, the University of Maryland research scientist who generated the map.

It is this diligent and time consuming analysis of spectral data that is providing much of the "color" with which Deep Impact scientists are painting the first ever detailed picture of a comet. For example, researchers recently saw emission bands for water vaporized by the heat of the impact, followed a few seconds later by absorption bands from ice particles ejected from below the surface and not melted or vaporized.

"In a couple of seconds the fast, hot moving plume containing water vapor left the view of the spectrometer, and we are suddenly seeing the excavation of sub-surface ice and dust," said Deep Impact co-investigator Dr. Jessica Sunshine, with Science Applications International Corporation, Chantilly, Va. "It is the most dramatic spectral change I've ever seen."

These findings are published in the September 9 issue of the journal Science, and were presented this week at the Division for Planetary Sciences meeting in Cambridge, England. Mission scientists are filling in important new portions of a cometary picture that is still far from finished.

The University of Maryland is responsible for overall Deep Impact mission science, and project management is handled by JPL. The spacecraft was built for NASA by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation, Boulder, Colo. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission Status

September 14, 2005

Three cameras on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter worked as expected in a test pointing them at the moon and stars on Sept. 8.

"We feel great about how the camera performed and can hardly wait to see what it will show us at Mars," said Dr. Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson, principal investigator for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment aboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The test also checked operation of the spacecraft's Context Camera and Optical Navigation Camera, plus the spacecraft's high-gain antenna and systems for handling and distributing data from the instruments.

"The instruments and the ground data system passed this test with flying colors," said Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Manager Jim Graf of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We received 75 gigabits of data in less than 24 hours, which is a new one-day record for any interplanetary mission."

The spacecraft was about 10 million kilometers (6 million miles) from the moon when it turned to slew the cameras' fields of view across that test target. At that distance, the moon would appear as a single star-like dot to the unaided eye. In the test images by the high-resolution camera, it is about 340 pixels in diameter and appears as a crescent about 60 pixels wide. The tests also included imaging of the star cluster Omega Centauri for data to use in calibrating the camera.

During its primary science mission at Mars, the spacecraft will orbit within about 300 kilometers (186 miles) of that planet's surface. From that distance, the high-resolution camera will discern objects as small as one meter or yard across.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched on Aug. 12, will reach Mars and enter orbit on about March 10, 2006. After gradually adjusting the shape of its orbit for half a year, it will begin its primary science phase in November 2006. The mission will examine Mars in unprecedented detail from low orbit, returning several times more data than all previous Mars missions combined. Scientists will use its instruments to gain a better understanding of the history and current distribution of Mars' water. By inspecting possible landing sites and by providing a high-data-rate relay, it will also support future missions that land on Mars.

More information about the mission, including new test images of the moon by the high-resolution camera, is available online at http://www.nasa.gov/mro.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, prime contractor for the project, built both the spacecraft and the launch vehicle. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo., built the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment instrument for the University of Arizona to provide to the mission. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., provided the Context Camera. JPL provided the Optical Navigation Camera.

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me@rescam.org

9/21/05 - Recent Changes on Mars Seen by Mars Global Surveyor
QuickTime (cc) click here

Voyager Finds Three Surprises Near Our Solar System's Edge

September 23, 2005

A trio of surprise discoveries from NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft reveals intriguing new information about our solar system's final frontier. The findings appear in the Sept. 23 issue of Science.

The surprises come as the hardy, long-lived spacecraft approaches the edge of our solar system, called the heliopause, where the sun's influence ends and the solar wind smashes into the thin gas between the stars.

"These are just the most recent of many surprises Voyager has revealed in its 28-year journey of discovery. They tell us that the interaction of our sun with the surrounding interstellar matter from other stars is more dynamic and complex than we had imagined, and that there is more yet to be learned as Voyager begins the final leg of its race to the edge of interstellar space," said Dr. Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Voyager 1 is expected to pass beyond the heliopause into interstellar space in eight to 10 years, with Voyager 2 expected to follow about five years later.

Voyager 1 has already passed the termination shock, where the million-mile-per-hour solar wind abruptly slows and becomes denser and hotter as it presses against interstellar gas. It was expected the wind beyond the shock would slow to a few hundred thousand miles per hour. But the Voyager scientists were surprised to find that the speed was much less, and at times the wind appeared to be flowing back inward toward the sun.

"This could mean that the outward pressure of wind was decreasing as the sun entered the less active phase of its 11-year cycle of sunspot activity," said Stone.

Another surprise: the direction of the interplanetary magnetic field in the outer solar system varied more slowly beyond the termination shock. As the sun rotates every 26 days, the direction of the field alternates every 13 days. That field is carried out by the solar wind, with the alternating directions forming a pattern of zebra stripes moving outward past the spacecraft. One could imagine a zebra with giant "magnetic stripes" running past the spacecraft and Voyager 1 "observing" an alternating stripe every 13 days. After the shock, the "zebra" with its stripe pattern was moving at nearly the same speed as Voyager, so that it took more than 100 days for the stripe to pass the spacecraft and for the magnetic field to switch directions.

Perhaps the most puzzling surprise is what Voyager 1 did not find at the shock. It had been predicted that interstellar ions would bounce back and forth across the shock, slowly gaining energy with each bounce to become high speed cosmic rays. Because of this, scientists expected those cosmic ray ions would become most intense at the shock. However, the intensity did not reach a maximum at the shock, but has been steadily increasing as Voyager 1 has been moving farther beyond the shock. This means that the source of those cosmic rays is in a region of the outer solar system yet to be discovered.

More information and visuals about Voyager are available online at http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/ and http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/voyager_agu.html .

Still operating in remote, cold and dark conditions billions of miles from the sun, the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft owe their longevity to radioisotope thermoelectric generators which produce electricity from the heat generated by the natural decay of plutonium.

Caltech manages NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which built and operates Voyager 1 2. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., built the magnetometers.

What's It Like Where Voyager Is?

To envision the Sun's presence in the Milky Way galaxy, think of a ship plowing through the ocean, being tossed by currents. As the ship sails ahead, a bow shock spreads around the vessel.

The area under the Sun's influence, stretching well beyond the planets and forming what's called the heliosphere, is like a ship. The outer edges of the heliosphere are gently buffeted by interstellar wind, the gas and dust between the stars. As the Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way galaxy, the heliosphere moves as well, creating a bow shock ahead of it in interstellar space.

Termination Shock:
Blowing outward billions of kilometers from the Sun is the solar wind, a thin stream of electrically charged gas. This wind travels at an average speed ranging from 300 to 700 kilometers per second (700,000 - 1,500,000 miles per hour) until it reaches the termination shock. At this point, the speed of the solar wind drops abruptly as it begins to feel the effects of interstellar wind.

Heliosphere:
The solar wind, emanating from the Sun, creates a bubble that extends far past the orbits of the planets. This bubble is the heliosphere, shaped like a long wind sock as it moves with the Sun through interstellar space.

Heliosheath:
The heliosheath is the outer region of the heliosphere. Voyager entered the heliosheath about 14 billion kilometers (approximately 8.7 billion miles) from the Sun. This is about 94 times the distance from the Sun to Earth.

The heliosheath is just beyond the termination shock, the point where the solar wind slows abruptly, becoming denser and hotter. The solar wind piles up as it presses outward against the approaching wind in interstellar space.

Heliopause:
The boundary between solar wind and interstellar wind is the heliopause, where the pressure of the two winds are in balance. This balance in pressure causes the solar wind to turn back and flow down the tail of the heliosphere. Once Voyager passes the heliopause, it will be in interstellar space.

Bow shock:
As the heliosphere plows through interstellar space, a bow shock forms, much as forms in front of a boulder in a stream.

Voyager 2:
Voyager 2 has visited more planets than any other spacecraft, swinging by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 2 was deflected downward by Neptune and is heading southward below the plane of the planets. With a somewhat lower speed than Voyager 1, it is about eighty percent as far from the Sun.

Voyager 1:
Voyager 1 is the most distant human-made object in the universe, At the beginning of 2005, the spacecraft was about 94 times as far from the Sun as is Earth. It was deflected northward above the plane of the planets' orbits when it swung by Saturn in 1980 and is now speeding outward from the Sun at nearly one million miles per day, a rate that would take it from Los Angeles to New York in less than four minutes. Long-lived nuclear batteries are expected to provide electrical power until at least 2020 when Voyager 1 will be more than 13 billion miles from Earth and may have reached interstellar space.

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me@rescam.org

Mars Express mission extended

22 September 2005
ESA’s Mars Express mission has been extended by one Martian year, or about 23 months, from the beginning of December 2005.

The decision, taken on 19 September by ESA’s Science Programme Committee, allows the spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet to continue building on the legacy of its own scientific success.
Co-ordinated from the beginning with the Mars science and exploration activities of other agencies, Mars Express has revealed an increasingly complex picture of Mars.
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Nasa's plan to go back to the moon

Before the end of the next decade, NASA astronauts will again explore the surface of the moon. And this time, we're going to stay, building outposts and paving the way for eventual journeys to Mars and beyond. There are echoes of the iconic images of the past, but it won't be your grandfather's moon shot.

This journey begins soon, with development of a new spaceship. Building on the best of Apollo and shuttle technology, NASA's creating a 21st century exploration system that will be affordable, reliable, versatile, and safe.

The centerpiece of this system is a new spacecraft designed to carry four astronauts to and from the moon, support up to six crewmembers on future missions to Mars, and deliver crew and supplies to the International Space Station.

The new crew vehicle will be shaped like an Apollo capsule, but it will be three times larger, allowing four astronauts to travel to the moon at a time.

The new spacecraft has solar panels to provide power, and both the capsule and the lunar lander use liquid methane in their engines. Why methane? NASA is thinking ahead, planning for a day when future astronauts can convert Martian atmospheric resources into methane fuel.
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With pictures.

10/4/05 - Cassini's Flyby 'Doubleheader'
Quicktime (open caption 9.9Mb)

10/7/05 - Ulysses 15th Anniversary
Quicktime (open caption 26.5Mb)

Ice-Watching Satellite's Fate Unkown After Launch

a German Newsside report it is lost

http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/weltraum/0,1518,378869,00.html

more Info at ESA

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/index.html

Greetings from Germany NRW
Ulli

Interview with Volker Liebig on the loss of CryoSat

we can build it again

Full Story

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM1OR5Y3EE_index_0.html

Greetings from Germany NRW
Ulli