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NASA Mars Orbiter Beams Back Images of Comet's Tiny Nucleus

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The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on board NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has become the first instrument orbiting Mars to beam back images of comet Siding Springs nucleus and coma. And by default, it has also become the first ever mission to photograph a long-period comets pristine nucleus on its first foray into the inner solar system.

Interestingly, through analysis of these first HiRISE observations, astronomers have determined that the icy nucleus at the comets core is much smaller than originally thought.

NEWS: Mars Missions Report in After Comet Close Encounter

Telescopic observers had modeled the size of the nucleus as about half a mile, or one kilometer, wide, writes a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory news release. However, the best HiRISE images show only two to three pixels across the brightest feature, probably the nucleus, suggesting a size less than half that estimate.

The two observations showcased here are the best two from the HiRISE campaign. The top thumbnails represent images with the full dynamic range, including the nucleus and coma. Comets are composed of a central icy lump of material the nucleus and when the comet becomes heated by solar energy, ices sublime, blasting vapor and dust into space. During this process, the coma forms and the solar wind will sweep some of the vapor and dust into a tail.

The larger bottom images are overexposed photos where the coma has been brightened so astronomers can fully appreciate its extent. The nucleus in these images cannot be seen. The time between left and right images is approximately 9 minutes.

NEWS: Comet Siding Spring Whizzes Past Mars

Three days before closest approach, the MRO slewed to track the incoming comets location. However, its predicted position was slightly out, so mission scientists made some adjustments so the comet would be in HiRISEs field of view when the comet came within 85,000 miles of the Red Planets surface.

This is the first time that a fresh comet from the Oort Cloud a hypothetical region surrounding the sun approximately a light-year away containing a countless number of icy bodies that could become comets if they drop toward the sun has been observed up-close. The comets weve visited in the past with probes are short-period comets that have well-known orbits (like the famous Comet Halley). It is shear luck that Siding Spring, which was only discovered in January 2013, should be so accommodating and fly so close to a planet we just so happen to have an armada of robotic cameras ready to start observing.

PHOTO: Mars and Comet Unite in Stunning Close Approach Photo

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NASA Mars Orbiter Beams Back Images of Comet's Tiny Nucleus

NASA films fascinating SpaceX Falcon 9 reentry, paving way for Mars missions

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As NASA eyes future missions to Mars, it needs to accumulate data on how large-payload rockets behave in atmospheric reentry conditions. A recent collaboration between NASA and SpaceX allowed the space agency to capture some unique data on the reentry of a large rocket under Mars-like conditions in the upper atmosphere. Thermal video of the event is not only full of useful scientific data, its cool to watch.

The video follows the path of the Falcon 9 first stage, which is the largest section of the rocket. Its what launches the payload from the launch pad and takes it most of the way into orbit. After the second stage separates to complete the job, the first stage is either discarded, or recovered. Perfecting a method of landing and recovering the first stage is what SpaceX is working on right now (the Falcon 9R).

The Falcon 9 is a perfect vehicle to provide this sort of reentry data because its first stage is capable of powered descent. Specifically, part of the return procedure is firing the rocket engines in retrograde, or in the direction of travel. NASA calls this supersonic retro-propulsion. This is the part of landing where the rocket slows its descent, and would be an important component of future Mars missions, both manned and unmanned.

If you look at the way the Curiosity rover was landed on Mars, you start to see the problem. It was too heavy for parachutes, as the Martian atmosphere is very thin. It was also too massive for the controlled crash-landings used to get smaller rovers like Spirit and Opportunity to the surface. If you need to get a large payload onto the surface of Mars, you need a way to slow the descent through the use of supersonic retro-propulsion. Curiosity had its rocket-powered sky crane, and that worked well enough, but it wont work for a craft thats very much heavier. Youd need something much more similar to the Falcon 9.

To capture the data from this reentry, NASA outfitted two planes with high-resolution thermal imaging cameras and got them in the air about 50 miles from the Falcon 9s projected path. A NASA WB-57, a twin jet engine high-altitude research aircraft was equipped with a long-range optical infrared camera system capable of full-motion video. The other craft was a Navy NP-3D Orion positioned along a different part of the flight path with a similar infrared optical camera system.

Even without all the associated data points about heat levels and gas plumes, the video of the Falcon 9s descent is fascinating to watch. The change from a tiny point of light to blazing fireball illustrates how much energy it takes to bleed off all that speed from reentry.

NASA says the test data its acquiring by observing SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket in action is invaluable. It could accelerate the design and testing of NASAs future in-house rockets for long-haul deep space missions and save taxpayers millions of dollars over time. SpaceX is probably happy to have the data as well it could assist Elon Musk and company in the ongoing design and implementation of its fully reusable Falcon 9, which has had several successful test landings.

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NASA films fascinating SpaceX Falcon 9 reentry, paving way for Mars missions

Science & SciFi @ NASA Goddard – Part I "It’s the biggest cleanroom in the world" – Video

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Science SciFi @ NASA Goddard - Part I "It #39;s the biggest cleanroom in the world"
Next: MMS, Science SciFi @ NASA Goddard - Parts II III coming soon! Subscribe for more! NASA invited me to hang out with the heliophysicists at Goddard Space Flight Center today for scifi...

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Science & SciFi @ NASA Goddard - Part I "It's the biggest cleanroom in the world" - Video

Actress Erin Gray Likes New NASA Spacecraft | Buck Rogers | Video – Video

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Actress Erin Gray Likes New NASA Spacecraft | Buck Rogers | Video
More space news and info at: http://www.coconutsciencelab.com - actress Erin Gray, from the television series, "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century," likes NASA #39;s new Orion spaceship. Please rate...

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Actress Erin Gray Likes New NASA Spacecraft | Buck Rogers | Video - Video

NASA orbiters watch as comet flies safely past Mars

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Comet Siding Spring sailed past Mars on Sunday, coming 10 times closer to the Red Planet than any comet on record has come to Earth.

At the time of the comet's closest approach at 11:27 a.m., it was just 87,000 miles from Mars. That's less than half the distance between Earth and the moon.

Jim Green, director of planetary science for NASA, said the close encounter between planet and comet was a once-in-a-million-year event.

Comet Siding Spring traveled a long way to make its rendezvous with Mars. Its journey began a million years ago and billions of miles away in the Oort cloud, an icy region at the very outer edge of the solar system.

Scientists don't know what sent the comet hurtling toward the inner solar system -- perhaps the gravity of a passing star bumped it into its million-year orbit. They do think, however, that this is the closest the comet has ever come to the sun.

The comet will continue to sail toward the sun for a few more days before its orbit takes it on another million-year trip toward the outer solar system.

When the comet was discovered in January 2013, NASA officials were concerned that speeding dust particles in the comet's tail might damage the expensive and delicate spacecraft in orbit around Mars.

Computer models showed this was unlikely, but as a precaution, NASA officials made sure Odyssey, MAVEN and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) were hiding on the far side of the planet 80 minutes after the comet's closest approach. This was deemed to be the time of highest risk to the orbiters.

The duck and cover strategy worked out, and NASA said all three orbiters are safe and sound.

"The spacecraft performed flawlessly throughout the comet flyby," said MRO project manager Dan Johnston, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a statement. "It maneuvered for the planned observations of the comet and emerged unscathed."

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NASA orbiters watch as comet flies safely past Mars

NASA orbiters hide behind Mars to avoid comet debris

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A rare close flyby of a comet near Mars put NASA's orbiters in a potentially dangerous situation, but also allowed them to study the moving space object.

An artist's concept of the orbiters hiding from the comet. NASA/JPL-Caltech

It was a close encounter of the comet kind. A giant comet buzzed Mars over the weekend, coming into relatively close proximity with NASA's three orbiters there: Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) orbiter. NASA was concerned about the release of dust from the comet, which could potentially gum up the parts on the orbiters.

In a preemptive move, NASA ordered the orbiters to hide behind Mars for a cosmic game of hide and seek to minimize exposure to particles. "The comet sped past Mars today much closer than any other know comet flyby of a planet," NASA reported Sunday. It came within 88,000 miles of Mars. All three orbiters checked back in with headquarters after the flyby to report themselves as healthy.

The comet, known as C/2013 A1 Siding Spring, gave NASA a rare opportunity to study a comet in fairly close quarters using the orbiters. Odyssey, for example, took images of the comet using its Thermal Emission Imaging System. Those images are being downlinked to Earth for processing and study. Odyssey was also tasked with studying how the comet's dust and gas emissions might impact Mars' atmosphere.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spent half an hour hiding behind the Red Planet to avoid the comet's high-velocity dust particles, but that didn't stop it from making some planned observations. Like Odyssey, it is also looking at whether the comet's tail interacted with Mars' atmosphere as it swooped by.

MAVEN, the newest orbiter to arrive at Mars, is in the earliest phases of its mission, but NASA still took the opportunity to collect data on the comet. Scientists are hoping to learn more about the composition of the gases and dust released by the comet thanks to information gathered by MAVEN's onboard instruments.

The duck-and-cover maneuvers ended up being effective for protecting the orbiters. It could take days to download all the data. After that, researchers will have a lot of information to process. "This comet is making its first visit this close to the sun from the outer solar system's Oort Cloud, so the concerted campaign of observations may yield fresh clues to our solar system's earliest days more than 4 billion years ago," NASA said.

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NASA orbiters hide behind Mars to avoid comet debris

NASA orbiters are OK after comet close call on Mars

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It was the closest comet near-miss known to astronomers, but everything is alright.

Comet Siding Spring shaved past a planets surface at one third the distance of the Earth to the moon. But it wasnt Earth in the cross hairs it was our neighbor Mars.

Earth got lucky in more than one way. With a gang of NASA orbiters and rovers on and around Mars, their cameras and instruments got a historic front row seat on the comet that NASA said made the closest recorded pass ever by any planet.

The three orbiters are just coming out of hiding.

The comet came so close that Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) had to duck and cover on the other side of the planet.

Otherwise, Siding Springs debris of dust and gas flying at 126,000 miles per hour just 87,000 miles above Mars surface could have blasted them like a shotgun.

Theyre all OK, NASA said in a statement. It will take a few days for them to transfer pictures and data to Earth.

Siding Spring has moved on. The comet does not pose a threat to Earth and was headed back out to the outer reaches of the solar system, NASA said.

Comet spectators

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NASA orbiters are OK after comet close call on Mars

NASA TV Coverage Set for U.S. Cargo Ships Departure from International Space Station

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After delivering almost 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments to the International Space Station during a month-long stay, the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is set to leave the orbital laboratory on Saturday, Oct. 25.

The Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to detach from the Earth-facing side of the station's Harmony module and unberth through commands sent by robotic ground controllers in mission control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston operating the Canadarm 2 robotic arm. Mission control will maneuver Dragon into place then turn it over to Expedition 41 robotic arm operators Reid Wiseman and Barry Wilmore of NASA for release, which is scheduled for 9:56 a.m. EDT.

NASA Television will provide live coverage of Dragon's departure beginning at 9:30 a.m.

Space station and SpaceX officials delayed Dragons departure four days from the originally scheduled date of Oct. 21 because of high sea states in the splashdown and recovery zone west of Baja California.

Dragon is the only space station resupply spacecraft able to return to Earth intact. It will return about 3,276 pounds of cargo, including science samples from human research, biology and biotechnology studies, physical science investigations and education activities sponsored by NASA and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, the nonprofit organization responsible for managing research aboard the U.S. national laboratory portion of the space station.

Dragon will execute three thruster firings to move away from the station to a safe distance for its deorbit burn at 2:43 p.m. The capsule will splash down in the Pacific Ocean around 3:39 p.m. Neither the deorbit burn nor the splashdown will broadcast on NASA TV.

Dragon launched on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on Sept. 21 on the companys fourth commercial resupply mission to the station. It arrived at the station Sept. 23.

For NASA TV schedule and video streaming information, visit:

NASA TV Live

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NASA TV Coverage Set for U.S. Cargo Ships Departure from International Space Station

NASA Soil Moisture Mapper Arrives At Launch Site

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A NASA spacecraft designed to track Earth's water in one of its most important, but least recognized forms -- soil moisture -- now is at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, to begin final preparations for launch in January.

The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) spacecraft arrived Wednesday at its launch site on California's central coast after traveling from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. The spacecraft will undergo final tests and then be integrated on top of a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket in preparation for a planned Jan. 29 launch.

SMAP will provide the most accurate, highest-resolution global measurements of soil moisture ever obtained from space and will detect whether the ground is frozen or thawed. The data will be used to enhance scientists' understanding of the processes that link Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles.

Soil moisture is critical for plant growth and supplies aquifers, which are underground water supplies contained in layers of rock, sand or dirt. Through evaporation, water in the soil cools the land surface and lower atmosphere while seeding the upper atmosphere with moisture that forms clouds and rain. High-resolution global maps of soil moisture produced from SMAP will allow scientists to understand how regional water availability is changing and inform water resource management decisions.

"Water is vital for all life on Earth, and the water present in soil is a small but critically important part of Earth's water cycle," said Kent Kellogg, SMAP project manager at JPL. "The delivery of NASA's SMAP spacecraft to Vandenberg Air Force Base marks a final step to bring these unique and valuable measurements to the global science community."

SMAP data also will aid in predictions of plant growth and agricultural productivity, improve weather and climate forecasts, and enhance our ability to predict the extent and severity of droughts and where floods may occur. SMAP's freeze/thaw data will also be used to detect changes in the length of the growing season, which is an indicator of how much carbon plants take up from the atmosphere each year.

Among the users of SMAP data will be hydrologists, weather forecasters, climate scientists, and agricultural and water resource managers. Additional users include fire hazard and flood disaster managers, disease control and prevention managers, emergency planners and policy makers.

To make its high-resolution, high-accuracy measurements, SMAP will combine data from two microwave instruments -- a synthetic aperture radar and a radiometer -- in a way that uses the best features of each. The instruments can peer through clouds and moderate vegetation cover day and night to measure water in the top 2 inches (5 centimeters) of the soil.

SMAP will fly in a 426-mile altitude, near-polar, sun-synchronous orbit that crosses the equator near 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. local time. SMAP is designed to operate for at least three years, producing a global map of soil moisture every two to three days.

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NASA Soil Moisture Mapper Arrives At Launch Site

Incredible UFO Sighting Captured By NASA! UFO Visits ISS Watch in HD! 2014 – Video

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Incredible UFO Sighting Captured By NASA! UFO Visits ISS Watch in HD! 2014
UFO Sightings Captured By NASA! UFO Visits ISS Watch in HD! 2014 Original Link captured Time 0:10:35 http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/53969459 If you have captured anything Amazing regarding...

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Incredible UFO Sighting Captured By NASA! UFO Visits ISS Watch in HD! 2014 - Video


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